VICTOR JOECKS: The elites who hate the elites are the elites America needs
A paradox of Donald Trump reshaped American politics.
On Thursday night, Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination. Whether or not President Joe Biden stays in the race, polls show Trump leading as November nears.
Trump has significantly changed the Republican coalition. White college graduates overwhelmingly voted for Ronald Reagan. But in 2020, 60 percent of those voters supported Biden. Trump attracts more voters without a college degree, including minority voters.
Trump is an unlikely leader for those further down the economic ladder. He’s a billionaire. He was a TV star. He sits at the top of the corporate hierarchy, not the bottom. Trump is an elite.
The same can be said about Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential candidate. Vance went to Yale Law School. He wrote a bestselling book that Netflix turned into a movie. He worked for a venture capital firm.
While Trump and Vance are both elites, they’ve come to power attacking the country’s elites as the swamp or ruling class. Isn’t that hypocritical?
No. Here’s why. While the words are used interchangeably, there’s two different meanings here.
The first definition is the one that Trump and Vance fit into. They’ve reached the top of their fields. They enjoy wealth and fame that most can only dream about. Most people don’t begrudge them or others like them. This set of elites earned their success by merit.
The country needs these elites. For instance, you’ve probably flown somewhere but don’t know how to design an airplane. It takes specialized knowledge and years of hard work. In a free market, in-demand skills and low supply lead to high salaries and membership in the financial elite. That’s a good thing. In the private market, high salaries act as a signal, telling people which skills are most highly valued and nudging them toward those fields.
But imagine someone could get the trappings of an elite — the power, pay and prestige — while using their perch to undermine the excellence they’re supposed to be creating and overseeing. Those elites are destructive. That’s the elitism that Trump and Vance rail against.
You can see this in the Secret Service. The country needs elite agents. Most people don’t have the strength, skill and physical courage to protect the president. But Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle hasn’t made excellence the agency’s priority. Instead, she pledged to make sure 30 percent of its recruits were women by 2030.
Hiring women isn’t what the country needs the Secret Service to excel in.
Unsurprisingly, Cheatle refuses to resign. If you don’t prioritize merit, why leave when your agency almost allows a presidential candidate to be assassinated?
These types of failures are everywhere in government. Look at inflation, illegal immigration, the supposed health experts during COVID, the surrender in Afghanistan, energy prices and education. Yet government elites want ever more power.
Yes, it’s much easier to point out these failures than to fix them. Conservatives need their own experts to shrink the size of government while maintaining competency in its core functions. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis exemplifies this balance.
This is the appeal of Trump and Vance. The elites who hate the elites are the elites America needs.
Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.
