A quick quiz for you: define “the elite”. Perhaps you answered with something along the lines of “people with superior abilities”? Or maybe you defined it as: “the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world”? Neither of those is correct. Nope, “the elite” is now a derogatory term used by politicians to mean anyone who disagrees with them. It’s the defining political insult of our time.
Donald Trump kicked off this trend. The former president owns a multimillion-dollar Manhattan penthouse dripping with gold, but, starting around 2015, he has carefully distanced himself from evil media and political elites. The idea that he’s not included in the “elite” is so laughable that sometimes he’s even confused himself. At one point in 2018 he told a crowd in Minnesota: “You ever notice they always call the other side ‘the elite’? The elite! Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do … I’m richer than they are.”
That slip-up aside, “the elite” has become a handy shorthand for conservatives who want to shut down debate; a useful way for powerful insiders to position themselves as victimised outsiders. This year, for example, back when she was running for the Republican nomination, Nikki Haley argued that people who were calling for her to drop out of the race were “political elites”. When you don’t have a coherent argument, you can just use the E-word.
Joe Biden has cottoned on to this. On Monday the embattled president called into MSNBC’s Morning Joe and railed against “the elites” who are urging him to stand down after his disastrous debate performance. Want to know what he did after he announced he is “so frustrated by the elites”? He hopped on a call with his donors. You know, the ones with mansions in the Hamptons and millions of dollars to give to politicians. The non-elites.
One of Biden’s biggest talking points is the fact that he is not Trump. Biden likes to go on about how Trump is a liar with the “morals of an alley cat”. Which is true. But now Biden, backed into a corner and yelling about elites, is starting to sound very Trumpian indeed.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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