When American conservatives speak of the "liberal elite," they use
"elite" as a pejorative, ignoring its denotative sense as simply a
group of people that, because of their education, position, power, or
wealth, wield influence far greater than the rank and file within any
given larger group of which they are a part. Instead, they usually
limit the liberal elite to the intelligentsia of the NE corridor of
the United States (e.g., journalists and academics) and the activist
moguls, directors, and actors that make up the most politically vocal
segment of the Hollywood set.

Is there an analogous "conservative elite," and, if so, how would one define it?

My initial inclination is to define two variants, as follows:

1) Certain non-govt persons who can be individually identified as
influential proclaimers of conservatism as the political philosophy
best for America. Some examples:

Rush Limbaugh
Ann Coulter
George Will
Bill Buckley
Bill Kristol
Richard Perle
Fellows of the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation,
and the Cato Institute
CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (most of them)

2) The whole sub-class of upper-crust conservatives who have prospered
especially well by following such a political-economic philosophy and
who, as a result, wield a good deal of political influence either up
front or from behind the scenes.

Do you think these are reasonable definitions/categories?

In a Jul 1, 2004 op-ed piece for the NY Times, Barbara Ehrenreich
wrote "But it would be redundant to speak of a 'conservative elite'
when the ranks of our corporate rulers are packed tight with the kind
of Republicans who routinely avoid the humiliating discomforts of
first class for travel by private jet." (Of course, her conclusion is
colored by her patently liberal point of view.)

Do you agree with Ehrenreich? If so, why, and if not, why not?

---

Clarification of Question by nautico-ga on 30 Sep 2004 13:11 PDT

The full Ehrenreich article can be found here:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0701-03.htm

---

Clarification of Question by nautico-ga on 30 Sep 2004 13:25 PDT

One more clarification: I'm not interested in those currently serving
in the govt. Conservatives usually omit liberal members of Congress in
their lists of the liberal elite, and so I'd like to have an
oranges-to-oranges comparison of only those well known conservatives
who are not currently so serving. That would, therefore, exclude Rep
Tom DeLay and his ilk.

---

Clarification of Question by nautico-ga on 01 Oct 2004 11:58 PDT

<sigh> Nobody wants to compose an Answer to this one?

Interesting piece by Ehrenreich. Thanx!

Darn it all, I am neither famous enough to be on List #1 nor wealthy
enough to be on List #2. Guess I will have to settle for being one of
the "conservative hoi polloi."

Pink:

"Conservative hoi polloi"? Now there's an oxymoron of the first
degree, unless you count NASCAR fans. Would that be <gasp> you?!

Well, I am no NASCAR fan, but I am a policical conservative (with
occasional libertarian outbursts), and my income is considerably less
than that of the average American.

I think I'd like to be around during one of your libertarian
outbursts. How can I make an appointment? (I don't intend to vote FOR
Kerry, nor will I vote for or against Dubya. What I will do, however,
is vote for the ouster of Cheney, Libby, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz, and
to rid the White House of the influence of Richard Perle.
Unfortunately, this requires that I mark my ballot for <gag> Kerry.)

Frankly, I'd like to live in the alternate universe where folks will
be rushing to the polls to choose between John McCain and Joe
Lieberman. But, since switching universes tends to upset the
chronosynclastic infundibulum, I am stuck with picking the lesser of
two weevils.

My vote will "cancel out" yours, Nautico. Maybe we should both vote
for Mickey Mouse this year. Better than the same ol' rats, eh?

Yeah, Pink. Where's Pat Paulsen when we most need him?

I'm glad you mentioned Pat Paulsen. There's some great stuff here:

http://www.paulsen.com/

Suspiciously removed from Onion site ;-)

"Small Group Of Dedicated Rich People Change The World" (1 September 2004)
The Onion [Google cache]
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:S1H3B3hbb80J:www.theonion.com/news/index.php%3Fissue%3D4035

>> Suspiciously removed from Onion site ;-)

Oh, no! Are they chopping The Onion? :-D

OK, no more parodies here! Get serious, and that includes you, Pink!

If you put Michael Badnarik in google the first item will give you
more details than you can hope to find about the intentions of Bush
and Kerry. Even if we give Michael Badnarik 60% of the vote, he will
be prevented from doing most of the extreme Libertarian things. Let's
go for it. Either Bush or Kerry will succeed in doing far more things
we don't want.  Neil