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If you ever find yourself pondering the deep political divide in this country and why we’ve reached such an abysmal crossroads, look no further. The latest poll from Rasmussen lays it all out, shedding a bright light on why some in this country perceive that Biden is excelling and the economy is thriving, while the vast majority find themselves in a nightmare situation, barely making ends meet. According to this recent poll, the root cause of this stark division lies with the elites, who are so wildly out of touch with the average American that they can’t even grasp the unfolding disaster that surrounds all of us.
According to what the elites—for the purposes of this poll defined as city dwellers with postgraduate degrees earning $150K or more—believe, things are improving on the economic front. In contrast, only 20 percent of everyday voters share the same sentiment. But it becomes even more concerning as these disconnected dullards are also pushing for so-called experts, teachers, and professors, rather than parents, to decide what our children should learn. If that weren’t disturbing enough, this same group also believes that Americans (us peasants) have far too much individual freedom and should face strict utility rationing in an effort to “save the planet.”
It’s truly remarkable how out of touch our elites have become, with zero humility and no effort to understand the plight of the working class. It’s to the point now where you wonder how these types can tie their own shoes without help from a servant or two.
There’s a better description of the shifts both between and within the parties, a split that better explains changing voter demographics and growing populist sentiments. It’s the chasm between a disconnected elite and average Americans. This is becoming a them-vs.-us electorate and election. Political candidates, take heed.
This gulf is described by unique new polling from Scott Rasmussen’s RMG Research, conducted for the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Mr. Rasmussen says that for more than a year he’d been intrigued by consistent outlier data from a subset of Americans, which he later defined as those with a postgraduate degree, earning more than $150,000 a year, and living in a high-density area. Mr. Rasmussen in the fall conducted two surveys of these “elites” and compared their views to everyone else.
Talk about out of touch. Among the elite, 74% say their finances are getting better, compared with 20% of the rest of voters. (The share is 88% among elites who are Ivy League graduates.) The elite give President Biden an 84% approval rating, compared with 40% from non-elites. And their complete faith in fellow elites extends beyond Mr. Biden. Large majorities of them have a favorable view of university professors (89%), journalists (79%), lawyers and union leaders (78%) and even members of Congress (67%). Two-thirds say they’d prefer a candidate who said teachers and educational professionals, not parents, should decide what children are taught.
More striking is the elite view on bedrock American principles, central to the biggest political fights of today. Nearly 50% of elites believe the U.S. provides “too much individual freedom”—compared with nearly 60% of voters who believe there is too much “government control.” Seventy-seven percent of elites support “strict rationing of gas, meat, and electricity” to fight climate change, vs. 28% of everyone else. More than two-thirds of elite Ivy graduates favor banning things like gasoline-powered cars and stoves and inessential air travel in the name of the environment. More than 70% of average voters say they’d be unwilling to pay more than $100 a year in taxes or costs for climate—compared with 70% of elites who said they’d pay from $250 up to “whatever it takes.”
This framing explains today’s politics better. While this elite is small, its members are prominent in every major institution of American power, from media to universities to government to Wall Street, and have become more intent on imposing their agenda from above. Many American voters feel helplessly under assault from policies that ignore their situation or values.
Thankfully, this is all in Trump’s wheelhouse. The challenge for him as the populist candidate is calling out this sense of alienation, similar to how he did in 2016, but also different because it’s gotten so much worse under Biden. Trump should use this poll as a launching pad for a national campaign that offers concrete solutions to heal this divide in favor of the working class. After all, at one time, Republicans were seen as the “elite” political party, but nowadays, it’s the Democrats, the Limousine Liberals, who are pushing agendas like “Climate Change” that will savage average Americans while they remain free to do whatever they please because they don’t operate by the same rules they push on others. Trump can capitalize on this disconnect to appeal to the working class, offer practical solutions to bridge this cultural divide, and finally put these smarmy elites back in their place.
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