06-28-2016, 07:10 AM
(06-28-2016, 12:03 AM)Dan Wrote: 1. In Boomer dominated America (meaning post 1980 and especially post 1990) the divide central divide in American politics has been between the bureaucratic and cultural/creative elites on the Democratic side and the economic elites on the Republican side.I am quite interesting it this topic, as if plays into the structural democratic theory, secular cycles and similar things. A few comments:
2. The petite bourgeoisie has been overwhelmingly republican while people who identify culturally with the creative elites have been overwhelmingly Democratic* racial minorities have been democratic leaning to strongly democrat regardless. Non elite whites outside of petite bourgeoisie have been split, since many whites identify with the petite bourgeoisie (especially the working class portions) and the petite bourgeoisie has a less condescending attitude towards the working class than the elites many have ended up voting Republican, those who work for the government or those in the few private sector unions that remain vote Democratic. In the south party as determined on an entirely racial basis.
3. In this election Trump's support came from the petite bourgeoisie and working class republicans who revolted against the economic elites who supported establishment candidate. On the Democratic Sanders got support from the working class white Democrats as well as millennial elite aspirants who have been shut out while Clinton got support democratic elites and blacks.
I would define modern politico-economic elites to economic elites (CEOs, corporate executives, business owners, financiers and the investor class), political elites (national legislators, government executives at state and federal and a few large cities, political professionals such as lobbyists and campaign professionals) and leaders of major interest groups such as churches, unions and advocacy groups, NRA, NAACP, Greenpeace, etc.), media elites (top broadcast & cable personalities, newspaper columnists/editors, talk show hosts, including comedians with their own shows like Steven Colbert, elite bloggers/internet celebrities etc.).
Less developed in my thinking are cultural elites e.g. artists, academics, think-tankers, etc. who I think fall into a different age category as the first kind.
1. I use the average of the mean ages of Congressmen, Senators, Governors and Supreme Court Justices as a proxy for the sociopolitical elite or "ruling class". This figure was about age 57 in 2000, meaning the average member of this groups was a Boomer and the ruling class could be said to be "occupied" by the Boomer generation. Boomers hardly dominated anything in 1990, (their average age was 39, in comparison GenX is 45 today).
2. The working class is split between parties. About half of the working class is not white and most of these people voted Democratic. It is only among the white working class that Republicans have a strong supporters. I suspect this split is what made the rising economic inequality of the past 40 years possibly. Remember it was a unified working class (equivalent to a combination of white, Latino, Asian and Muslims today) all unified by their common identity of being "not black" that made the New Deal politically possible (most blacks at that time were a legal underclass who were denied many political rights including suffrage). With the elimination of Jim Crow, a working class split developed, and this split made neoliberalism politically possible. Classic divide and conquer.
3. I am not sure how useful the term petite bourgeoisie is anymore.
In my thinking I have lumped the creative elites in with academics, and Federal government officials as the "manadarins" who were a new kind of elite created by the New Deal.