Yesterday, Howard Fineman published an article in the Huffington Post that stands out for its remarkable lack of self-consciousness about what being inside and outside “the system” actually means. In so doing, it also reveals a lot about how many in the establishment elite view themselves as maverick-y rebels, no matter how much power they actually have.
The article actually frames two people--Michael Bloomberg and Joe Scarborough--who live gratuitously upper-crust, establishment lives, as rebel outsiders. Here is the start of the article (emphasis mine):
There's no campaign yet, and there may never be, but New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MSNBC's morning talk-show host Joe Scarborough have begun trying to figure out whether they could be an independent presidential ticket in 2012 -- and who would be better to be on top if it happens.
They're the Odd Couple of Guys Outside the System.
For Fineman, Bloomberg and Scarborough are so outside “the system” that their outsider status deserves capital letters.
Well Howard, here are some tips on how to know when someone is not actually “outside the system.”
- If the place you meet to discuss your plans is a Harvard symposium, then you might not be “outside the system.”
They spent the day after the midterm elections complimenting each other at a Harvard symposium.
Harvard is “the system,” not a hotbed of anti-establishment thought.
- If you are a mayor of the country’s largest city (Bloomberg) or a former member of Congress (Scarborough), then you might not actually be “outside the system.” Powerful elected officials are “the system.”
- If you own a news outlet (Bloomberg) or are a host of a television program (Scarborough), then you might not actually be “outside the system.” Major media figures are “the system.”
- If you are worth $20 billion (Bloomberg), or even a few million (Scarborough), then you might not be “outside the system.” Rich people are “the system.”
- Finally, the one moment where the article is actually self-conscious about how upper crust the Bloomberg for President talk actually is quickly swallowed up by its least self-conscious moment of all (emphasis mine):
Of course, this may all be an act of spectacular Manhattan vanity, but the sense that our politics is broken is so widespread that the breakfast talk at the Regency and the lunch talk at Michael's can't be dismissed.
If you are eating breakfast at The Regency, and lunch at Michael’s, then you might not be “outside the system.”
Massive media influence, being super-rich, holding elected office, hanging out at Harvard, and having meals in super-expensive restaurants is about as “inside the system” as two people can possibly get. They are the establishment. They are upper-crust. They are the elite. They are the “system.”
But instead of having more money than God, holding major elected office, hanging out at Ivy-league schools, and wielding massive media power, what “the system” actually means for Fineman is being liberal or conservative:
The already-bitter partisan divide in Congress has to widen; the Republican Party has to become a subsidiary of the tea party; the Democrats must become a rump parliament of liberals; the tone of politics must get even nastier, Jon Stewart notwithstanding; and the economy has to remain enfeebled.
It doesn't take a political rocket scientist to see that this isn't a far-fetched scenario, but timing is everything.
Ah, I see. What “the system” actually does is screw “moderates,” no matter how ultra-powerful those moderates might be.
Forget that the most compelling, empirical political science on the matter has shown increasing income inequality to be the main cause of political polarization. Forget that what people actually want from government is for their pocketbooks not to be empty, rather than abstract moderation. Forget that the current President ran on exactly the sort of non-ideological, bi-partisan platform that Fineman pines for. Forget that no one is more disliked in the country than master’s of the universe like Scarborough and Bloomberg.
The real victims in America today are those people who seek the middle ground between Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson (and, surely, no one has actually tried to do that over the last two years). Those are the real little guys who get marginalized during their breakfasts at The Regency. Forget about, say, people out of work, families losing their homes, or anyone who might suffer from Social Security or other public services being cut. Those people actually believe stuff, so they are part of the system that is screwing ultra-powerful, media-mogul billionaires.
I hope that Bloomberg, or someone in his mold, actually does run for President. The resulting skull-thumping that such a candidate would take at the polls might finally serve as a wake-up call to Broderites like Fineman that there isn’t any popular support for the elitist dreck they serve up on columns like these. Bloomberg’s maverick-y, “outsider” defense of Wall Street, would go over particularly well with the general public, I bet. If they did message testing somewhere other than breakfast at The Regency, they would already know this.