Joe Klein's Elitist "Party of Insanity"

Rarely can I bring myself to get through the usual Joe Klein column - there is only so much insular punditry from the confines of New York and Washington I can take on a weekly basis. But today, a friend of mine said I had to read Klein's new piece. By the time I was through reading it, I was literally laughing out loud at how the chattering class can keep regurgitating their own self-serving crap, no matter what the hard data says.

The basic premise of Klein's piece is that populism doesn't work - even though polls say Americans want the parties to start speaking up for their economic rights, and even though Democratic politicians in "red" states are using populism to win where the national party has failed. Klein essentially says America needs "a Party of Sanity" which he defines as one "representing the pragmatic centrism of the business and professional elites." Notice that just like other bloviating blowhards, he uses the term "centrism" yet provides absolutely no evidence that the Big Business agenda is anywhere near what mainstream America supports. Why? Because there is no evidence. He then says the "path out of the current morass is for the Party of Sanity to regain control of the political process" from the grassroots.

If that wasn't arrogant and elitist enough for you, he then disparages populism, saying people who want the parties to be more populist "tend to believe that the system is rigged by dark and powerful forces that prevent the little guy from getting ahead." He says this as if it is inaccurate and conspiratorial.

Apparently, Klein hasn't been reading his New York Times or LA Times over his breakfasts at the Regency Hotel lately. If he had, he might have seen the 9 part series the Times is running on economic class in America, or some other interesting stories. In case you have a moment to step away from your schmoozing at the country club, Joe, here some of the highlights:

- "New research on mobility, the movement of families up and down the economic ladder, shows there is far less of it than economists once thought and less than. In fact, mobility, which once buoyed the working lives of Americans as it rose in the decades after World War II, has lately flattened out or possibly even declined."

- "The share of the nation's income earned by those in the uppermost category has more than doubled since 1980...The share of income earned by the rest of the top 10 percent rose far less, and the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell."

- "Under the Bush tax cuts, the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes - a minimum of $87 million in 2000, the last year for which the government will release such data - now pay income, Medicare and Social Security taxes amounting to virtually the same percentage of their incomes as people making $50,000 to $75,000. Those earning more than $10 million a year now pay a lesser share of their income in these taxes than those making $100,000 to $200,000."

- Corporate profits are skyrocketing while wages are stagnating. As just one example, the LA Times reported "CEOs at California's largest 100 public companies took home a collective $1.1 billion in 2004, up almost 20% from 2003. That compares with the 2.9% raise that the average California worker saw last year."

In other words, Joe, the data shows the system IS rigged, no matter how much you and your rich friends are desperate to make Americans believe it isn't. You don't even have to believe these statistics either, Joe. If you spent a day or two to actually leave the plush confines of your office, drive out to the American heartland, and talk to AVERAGE people, maybe you'd suddenly be embarrassed at how out of touch with reality you really are.

It's true - Klein has long been considered more of a punchline than a serious journalist. But still, I am always amazed at how people like Klein and his buddy Tom Friedman have absolutely no problem denigrating ordinary citizens who simply want to see their government start standing up for the middle class. You might think they would be aware of how patently transparent it looks to be a high-paid cushy columnist ripping on the desires of ordinary working stiffs. But apparently they are so consumed by their power lunches, hobnobbing with corporate CEOs, and palm pressing with powerful politicians that they have become totally and completely oblivious to their own arrogant and insulated stupidity.