I often write about the vast differences in beliefs, attitudes, and allegiances between ordinary Americans and the elites, be they academic, cultural, or political.
Scott Rasmussen and The Napolitan Institute have provided the numbers to prove the point. The elite are not like you and me, and by that, I don't mean that they have above-average influence or are wealthier--of course, they are--but rather that their attitudes and allegiances are not congruent with the interests of ordinary Americans.
They don't like you and want you to be less influential and less free. For all the talk about "saving democracy," they want you to sit down and shut up.
Just released: The Napolitan Institute report on resistance to the Trump Administration among the Elite One Percent, Federal Government Managers,
— Scott Rasmussen (@ScottWRasmussen) January 13, 2025
and voters. https://t.co/K0LbhxId3r pic.twitter.com/aP8H4cw7gp
Rasmussen and The Napolitan Institute conducted a poll to suss out the differences in attitudes between the Elite 1% and the rest of us to see just how large the differences are. Needless to say, they are huge.
But before I get to that, how did Scott define just who the "elite 1%" is? You could slice and dice the population up a million different ways, but to do a poll you have to operationalize the terms. Scott's definition does as good a job as you can of coming up with a definition, although I might have chosen a slightly different but harder-to-poll set of criteria. For his purposes I think this is as good as you can get:
Elite 1%: People in this group have postgraduate degrees, earn more than$150,000 annually, and live in densely populated areas (10,000 people per square mile in their zip codes). An extremely influential group, they represent approximately 1% of the U.S. population. Members of the Elite 1% tend to place a lot of trust in government, and many are concerned there is too much individual freedom in America.
For his definition of ordinary Americans, he chose these criteria:
Main Street Americans: This group, representing approximately 70-75% of the U.S. population, are the antithesis of the Elite 1%. They have none of the three attributes of the Elite 1%. They do NOT have postgraduate degrees, do NOT live in densely populated urban areas, and earn LESS than $150,000 annually. On many foundational issues, the gap between Main Street views and Elite 1% views is enormous. Main Street Americans have little trust in government, and most believe there is not enough individual freedom in America today.
Scott has other categories, but for a deeper dive, you should go to The Napolitan Institute and download the report. I encourage you to do that in any case.
The particular report about which I am writing has to do with planned resistance to Trump's second term, but attitudes about Trump all stem from a prior finding:
These surveys reflect a continuation of research done on the Elite 1% that launched in 2023. In 2023, two Elite 1% surveys were commissioned by the committee to Unleash Prosperity. In 2024, prior to this study, the Napolitan Institute conducted six surveys of the Elite 1%. This influential group is identified by three characteristics: they have postgraduate degrees, live in densely populated urban areas (more than 10,000 people per square mile), and earn at least $150,000 a year.The earlier research found that the Elite 1% held views on a number of issues and topics that were wildly out of touch with the American people. Core differences were discovered around issues of individual freedom and trust in government. By a 57% to 16% margin, voters believe there is not enough individual freedom in America.
But among the elite 1%, half believe that Americans have too much freedom and only 21% say not enough freedom.
Seventy percent (70%) of the elites trust the federal government to do the right thing most of the time. Among voters as a whole, only 21% do.
This is an absolute fact. During Trump's first term I was fairly good friends with someone at the DHS who was a HUGE Hillary supporter. When Trump won she lost her mind. She told me about weekly meetings at DHS where employees discussed ways to stop Trump's various efforts.
— @amuse (@amuse) January 13, 2025
From these diverging attitudes, all else follows, in my view. And, according to Scott Rasmussen's poll, the Elite 1% are more likely to not just oppose Donald Trump's policies, but to actively resist them. And government workers, in particular, plan to resist him most of all.
So much for them seeing Trump as their Chief Executive. Because they think Americans have too much freedom, they refuse to respect the voters.
Over the next four years, 56% of voters nationwide say their political efforts will primarily be intended to support the Trump administration. A Napolitan Institute survey of 1,000 Registered Voters found that just 29% will focus their political energies on resisting the incoming administration. However, among the Elite 1% and Federal Government Managers, support for the new administration is weaker and resistance is stronger. Just 48% of the Elite 1% will work on supporting the Administration, while 39%will resist. Among Main Street Americans, 44% plan to Strongly Support the Trump administration, and just 24% will Strongly Resist. That’s a net +20 points. That’s because 12% of Harris voters say they will now work to at least Somewhat Support the new Administration. These results are consistent with other survey research showing that most voters give the president-elect positive reviews forthe way he has handled the transition.
Government managers are the MOST likely to say they will resist the Trump administration, giving the lie to the idea that the #resistance is all about "saving democracy." It is exactly the opposite. The elites are more willing to say they will strongly resist, but government managers have the largest percentage of somewhat/strongly resist.
People in the elite and the managerial class have vastly different priorities than "Mainstreet Americans," and that comes out most strongly in how they view President Biden's performance. While most Americans think he has been a terrible president, those who like top-down big government approaches and like the idea of a technocracy divorced from the day-to-day concerns most people face think Biden has been great.
Particularly stunning is the gap between perceptions of Trump and the current president. Main Street Americans give Trump (58%) a far higher rating than Biden (40%).
The Elite 1% hold Biden in much higher regard than Trump. Seventy-two percent (72%) of the elites approve of Biden’s performance. That’s 24 points higher than their approval of Trump.
Federal Government Managers give Biden a 68% approval rating, 22 points higher than their approval of Trump during the transition.
The ongoing elite and government leadership approval of Biden is another example of just how differently they view the world compared to most Americans.
At least some of this has to do with attitudes about leadership. You and I think that the president should be a leader and decision-maker and that Biden's brain is mush. Government managers and elites are fine with a leaderless technocracy.
There's lots more to dig into, and you should get a copy of the report. But the bottom line is clear and consistent with your intuition: the elite and government managers are not like you and me and don't like us much either.
