The Political Elite Versus the People

For thirty years I have been hammering away about the crucial importance of understanding “power elite analysis” or “libertarian class theory” in order to make sense of how American society operates.

Economic historian Robert Higgs of the Independent Institute (no stranger to LRC readers) has authored an excellent article commenting upon a recent essay in The American Spectator by Dr. Angelo M. Codevilla, which defines  in superb, easy to understand terms how to analyze American sociopolitical culture  —  the political elite versus the people.

I have never seen this stated in such a clear and eloquent manner.  Both essays should be read by everyone, and shared with friends, family, colleagues, etc.

Dr. Codevilla’s article  is perhaps the most important essay I have ever read.   For the first time I have begun to understand how generations of leftist intellectuals and activists were passionately moved and inspired by the Communist Manifesto of 1848.   Codevilla has written a true American manifesto for our time, a brilliant analytical framework and dramatic call to action that will motivate millions in the Freedom Movement, the Tea Parties, and in the general society at-large.  His work draws on the pioneering scholarship of Bernard Bailyn and Murray Rothbard in seeing American politics as two adversarial classes at war with each other — an arrogant elite ruling class and “the country class” and the rest of us held at bay.  It deserves the widest possible readership and distribution possible.

In 1975, I briefly studied with Dr. Codevilla at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s Western Summer School at Thomas Aquinas College in California.  I knew then that here was a man who would be making a decisive impact on the political and intellectual landscape of America.  Dr. Codevilla has experienced a magnificent career at the top levels of public policy circles and academia.

Share

9:24 am on July 26, 2010