From the Archives: So That's Who's Screwing Everything Up

The real 1%

America’s political civil war appears to baffle many people. Here’s a post from this newsletter’s (pre-election) archives that explains why the current turmoil had to happen.

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So That's Who's Screwing Everything Up

Originally published May 27, 2024

Most normal Americans have a sense that the people now running the country are off in some fundamental way. But the specifics are fuzzy. Are they morons or evil geniuses? Are they controlled by foreign powers or home-grown mind viruses? Or are aliens pulling their strings?

Venerable pollster Scott Rasmussen claims to have found a plausible answer: The US is run by a tiny, insular group of people who share similar backgrounds and attitudes — and whose insularity has corrupted them to the point that they’re fine with stealing elections and censoring uncomfortable ideas.

Here’s a recent video in which Rasmussen explains his findings, followed by a transcript of the important part. This is truly shocking stuff:

The Elite 1%

The elite 1% are people who make at least $150K, live in a densely populated urban area, and have a postgraduate degree (that’s very important). We hear a lot about the diploma divide, and how people with a college degree are more democratic. Actually, it’s the postgrads who are different. The gap between post-graduates and people with bachelor's degrees is often bigger than the gap between bachelor's and no degree.

So that’s the elite 1%. They represent 1% of the population. They’re extremely influential. Most went to one of 12 elite schools, many of which have been in the news lately. The reason I bring that up is about half of the policy positions in government, and half of the corporate board positions in America are held by people who went to one of these schools. So their views play a large role in the country.

They tend to know their congressman. If they have an important issue they feel that they can just go see them and talk about it. Only 15% of Americans have ever met their congressman even once. So the elite 1% have a direct policy impact.

They’re in power centers. Somebody who is in Manhattan or Washington DC is in a different circle of power and influence from someone who lives in McKinney, Texas. If you’re thinking of who is shaping the mainstream media narrative, it’s this group.

We asked a thousand voters, “Suppose there was an election and suppose your candidate lost. And if their campaign team knew they could win by cheating and not get caught, would you want them to do so?” Among all voters, only 7% say they’d rather cheat to win. I wish it was one or two but 7%’s not bad. Among the elite 1%, 35% would rather cheat and win. And then among the group we call the “politically obsessed elite” (these are people who are not only in the elite 1%, but they talk politics every day) 69% of them would rather cheat to win the election. That’s because they don’t have much respect for the opinions of voters.

What are their views? Let’s start with a very simple one. Most Americans think we don’t have enough individual freedom. Among the elite 1%, about half say no, we’ve got too much freedom. And among the politically obsessed group, about 7 out of 10 say there’s too much individual freedom in America. That’s just mind-boggling to me, but part of the reason is because they trust the government.

In America, it’s been 50 years since most voters trusted the government to do the right thing, most of the time Since 1972. But among the elite 1%, 70% trust the government. Why? Well, partly, it’s because they can get in touch; they can reach out to their congressman or to an agency person. They are the government to a large degree.

And it’s not a conspiracy. A lot of people talk about deep-state conspiracies. Truly, it’s a sense of fraternity. “We all know each other and really don’t understand the rest of the country.” I would say that this is not a polling interpretation. When I look at all the data there’s a sense that most of us believe in a government of the people by the people and for the people. I think [the 1%] would say “of and by the elites” is what’s best for the people.

This is nothing new. Alexander Hamilton thought similar things a long time ago. Woodrow Wilson wrote about a desire for something similar to what we have now. Some people have always expressed a desire to rule over others. And America was founded to reject that idea.

The result is a political and moral chasm between this new aristocracy and the rest of us: