The well-respected Republican pollster Scott Rasmussen has identified (through expensive polling research) the emergence of a cohort of well-off urbanites who make up the ultra-left one percent of voters.
The demographics associated with this group will surprise no one. To wit: These folks are disproportionately young (between 35 and 54), white, upper middle class, and highly educated. They really like the job Joe Biden has turned in over the past three-plus years – think there is too much individual freedom in the United States – and are enthusiastic fans of any and all things Green New Deal.
Contrasting this progressive block with the well-studied blue collar deplorables (primarily white, high school educated, church-going, flyover located, liberty loving) explains an awful lot about the bitterly polarized era in which we live.
But such an explanation is too simplistic. There is more to the animosity/resentment angle than the number of graduate degrees each group possesses or whether they read the New York Times or watch WWE. And it begins with how regular ol’ folks interpret what America’s ruling class has accomplished – or more accurately failed to accomplish – while dictating foreign and domestic policy for the Great Unwashed.
Here, a purposely left open southern border with all its attendant miseries is foisted on the country in the name of equity – only to generate demands for amnesty on behalf of the ten million newly-arrived “citizens.”
Here, wildly inappropriate sexualized instruction targeted to children of tender age is marketed as the new normal – only to generate accusations of sexism/genderism (and other convenient “isms”) when parents begin to resist.
Here, Obama-era pacification/indulgence toward the terror-friendly regime in Tehran is marketed as the cost of getting a nuclear deal with the Mullahs – only to lead to another Middle East hot war begun and funded by those same Mullahs.
Here, a long held but deeply flawed presumption that Xi Jinping will forego authoritarianism once the West allowed him to have his way over Hong Kong, domestic energy production, and repression of dissidents remains the central tenet of Biden foreign policy – only to encourage the Chinese dictator to evermore provocative saber-rattling in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. (RELATED: BOB EHRLICH: The Left Is Smashing Cultural Third Rails In Pursuit Of Their Brave New World Agenda)
Here, a virulent iteration of identity politics (with an anti-Semitic twist) is revealed to exist within the hallowed halls of our most elite colleges and universities – only to spur additional vitriolic attacks against Jews and Zionism itself.
I could add the debacle in Afghanistan and the sorry state of American cities and the dangerous politicization of our justice system and a $34 trillion federal debt that few in Washington seem to care about and the unbridled censorship of free speech during the Biden era…but you get the point.
Our government institutions are failing us. We can’t pay our bills. Protesting parents are under investigation by the FBI. Foreign misadventures cost us thousands of lives. And we don’t even care to protect our own border.
The bottom line: Much of flyover America’s resentment with respect to the ruling elites (and especially that big government-loving one percent) is attributable to the notorious and costly policy failures of the past three-plus years. Indeed, a private entity that compiled such a spectacularly abysmal record would soon find its leadership team fired on the spot.
Alas, America’s voters have the opportunity to remove our present leadership in 272 days. It can’t come soon enough.
Bob Ehrlich is a former Governor of Maryland, Member of Congress, and State Legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in America’s leading newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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