by John Derbyshire, The Unz Review:
Earlier (by Sam Francis, 2002): Poll Exposes Elite-Public Clash On Immigration
[Adapted from the latest Radio Derb, now available exclusively on VDARE.com]
I had never heard of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity until this week, when a reference to them showed up on Twitter.
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
A shocking poll by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity (CUP) exposes the utter contempt the elite holds the general public in, with more than three quarters wanting to ration food and energy to combat ‘climate change’ and a majority wanting air travel for holidays banned.
CUP… pic.twitter.com/oXeCcK4Tfz
— William Foster (@PNWarlord) January 25, 2024
Going to their website I see that they are a lobby for Supply-Side Economics and Reaganite politics.
The first three names I see on the CUP website as principals of the outfit are Steve Forbes the flat-tax guy, Arthur Laffer the Laffer Curve guy—lowering tax rates increases tax revenues—and Stephen Moore, a notorious immigration enthusiast who Donald Trump wanted to make a governor of the Federal Reserve until Congress squashed the idea.
What’s not to like? Nothing, far as I’m concerned, except the melancholy hum of nostalgia that I hear as I speak those names,
Well yes, this week at any rate. That reference on Twitter took me to a report that CUP put out last month: “Them vs. U.S.”
The report concerns a survey—it’s actually two surveys, but they discuss them as one—that CUP commissioned last September from highly respectable polling firms.
Quote from the Executive Summary,
The survey is a first-of-its-kind look at the views of the American Elite—defined as people having at least one post-graduate degree, earning at least $150,000 annually, and living in high-population density areas (more than 10,000 people per square mile in their zip code)—and compares them to what the average American thinks. The Elites represent one percent of the U.S. population but have an outsized voice on public policy in the United States, with their views seeming somehow to dominate the national conversation.
Them vs. U.S.—The Two Americas and How the Nation’s Elite Is Out of Touch with Average Americans
Prepared by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity Staff
Reading the thing, I paused there to see how far I am from belonging to the elite, to that one percent. Far enough, for sure. I don’t have a post-grad degree, have never earned anything like $150K, and my zip code logs only fourteen hundred people to the square mile.
So I am Us, not Them.
Heck, I knew that, but just wanted to be certain.
OK, what does this survey tell us? Some highlights:
- “Only about 20 percent of all Americans say they believe their finances are getting better now. But among the Elite, that number more than triples to 74 percent who say they are better off. And among the Ivy League school graduates, 88 percent say they are better off.”
- “When Americans are asked if there is too much or too little freedom, Elites are three times more likely to say that there is too much individual freedom in America than all Americans. Almost six out of ten of the graduates from Elite colleges think there is too much freedom.”
- “An astonishing 77 percent of the Elites—including nearly 90 percent of the Elites who graduated from the top universities—favor rationing of energy, gas, and meat to combat climate change. Among all Americans, 63 percent oppose this policy”
- “At most, half of Americans have a favorable opinion of lawyers, lobbyists, union leaders, or journalists. However, almost 80 percent of the elites hold a favorable opinion of this group of professionals, and nearly 90 percent of the elite college attendees do. As for members of Congress, 28 percent have a favorable opinion versus 67 percent of Elites.”
Not a whole lot of surprises there, then. It’s their world, we just live in it. The Communist Coup is official.
It has of course always been thus. Way back in the 1840s a character in one of Disraeli’s novels observed that Queen Victoria reigned over not one nation but two:
