Bringing this blog back to life for a moment to address an interesting issue.
In his article for Slate James Ledbetter addresses the assertion in a new book I really want to read that the rich in America have pretty much all become limousine liberals: the rich have abandoned the GOP. Ledbetter argues that while the rich have increasinly become supporters (both vocally and financially) of the Democrats, the fact is the Democrats politics regarding financial matters (free trade, welfare, etc) have become almost indistinguishable from the GOP’s. Essentially the centrist goals of the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic party of Bill Clinton’s Welfare Reform and fiscial conservativism, have succeeded.
However, most of his examples of this demonstrate an acute ignorance about the changes that have occurred in the Democratic party over the last 20 years. Most of his examples involve organized labor. The Democratic party of FDR and LBJ had it’s strongest power base in labor unions, but as the economy has changed, manufacturing has died the new Democratic party of Barack Obama finds it’s power base in the educated urban upper middle class (and those who culturally identify with this group.) And the money comes from the educated urban upper middle class individuals whose prowess in the post-industrial knowledge economy had made them billionaires. And this current base (coastal latte liberals and what I call hybrid limousine liberals) understands that globalization, outsourcing, free trade, low tarrifs and the other boogey men fought tooth and nail by Big Labor, are good for their busines and the American economy. The current Democratic party still relies on labor unions for oganizational purposes and in places where the new economy has left behind (the Rust Belt) but those unions no longer steer the ship of the overall party.
Now here’s my theory:
The distinction Ledbetter fails to make is that there are (at least) three types of rich people: the superrich like Gates and Buffett who have become liberals due to social conscience and, frankly, will never ever feel economically insecure. And there are the two types of sort of lower-class rich (salaries between $500k and 2 mil/year and net worths below $20 mil): the solidly liberal post-dot-com knowledge economy people (sort of the Mark Zuckerberg type) and what have become the new financial base of the Conservative right and the GOP: the middle America small business “rich” – the type who own a medium sized small business, maybe a few hardware stores or a small supermarket chain. The first type has been educated and culturally attuned to the social liberalism of the coastal University and sort of middle of the road policies of Clinton and the DLC while the second is more a product of the typical Horatio Alger rugged individualism, pull yourself up by your bootstraps (financially conservative, anti tax, anti gov’t intervention, anti welfare) mentality. I feel like this is an important politcal distinction that’s still only gradually being accepted by pundits but it is one that is key and really defines much of the current political landscape.
Just my $.02. What do you think?
