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.

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. I mean, is anybody listening to CUP? Anybody younger than me, that is?

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:

Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.

Sybil, Or, The Two Nations, Book 2, Chapter 5

And on the matter of rich folks’ finances getting better while poor folks’ decline, a different person observed long before that

For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

Matthew 25:29

So of course there have always been rich and poor, living somewhat different lives. The difference today is ideological, a deep difference of belief.

Disraeli’s two (English) nations both loved their country and regarded foreigners as inferior. Both accepted their monarch as lawful ruler and Christianity as revealed truth. Both willingly supplied manpower to their country’s armed forces, albeit in different ranks.

Today we have luxury beliefs to go with luxury lifestyles—beliefs like the Climate Change cult and The Psychic Unity of Mankind.

I’ll leave you to look up the ultimate origins of those cults for yourself. This CUP report only says it knows how they are propagated in the present day:

Just over half of the Elites have a degree from one of the twelve Elite universities. These schools play a crucial role in defining the Elite culture and perspectives.

I think that’s right. It fortifies my belief that one precondition for the survival of America is the utter and total annihilation of the elite universities.

John Derbyshire [email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him.) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. He has had two books published by VDARE.com com: FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle) and FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT II: ESSAYS 2013.

For years he’s been podcasting at Radio Derb, now available at VDARE.com for no charge. His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com.