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The Political Scene | The New Yorker

How “the Élite” Became the Most Convenient Straw Man in Politics

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

President, Wickenden, Washington, Lizza, Obama, Wnyc, News, Barack, Politics

4.33.9K Ratings

🗓️ 25 January 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Everyone loves to rail against the élites. But to whom does the term refer? For right-wing politicians and pundits, it’s the mainstream media and the Ivy League-educated. For progressives, it’s corporate honchos. The malleable language of élite-blaming makes it easy for the American public to talk past one another without addressing an underlying grievance: entrenched income inequality. The New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos has written about this fraught concept in this week’s magazine. He joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss his findings, and to consider the nuances of how they manifest in the political lives of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

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Transcript

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Why do you think that Elite has become such a dirty word in today's politics?

1:16.2

It really has.

1:17.7

I mean, it's it's everywhere and it's hurled from every conceivable angle.

1:22.8

I think because it is so capacious, it can devour any subject, any target that you want.

1:31.9

And it's most of the time pretty much undefined.

1:35.8

It's undescribed.

1:36.9

And so you can hurl at your opponent, even if they're hurling it at you.

1:42.9

That's Evan Osnos.

1:44.9

Regular listeners to the political scene will know Evan's voice well from the Friday Roundtable, which he co-hosts along with Jane Mayer and Susan Glasser.

1:53.2

In this week's magazine, Evan has done a deep dive into the concept of The Elite, what it is, where it comes from, and why it attracts and repels us so strongly,

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