Our incredible shrinking elites

Comparatively rich and entitled: Those are the characteristics that Messrs. Gruber and Edelman share. Those, and the certitude that comes from being card-carrying members of the progressive elite. After all, how much more heady can it get for an academic than to be consulted by the president of the United States himself on health-care reform, or to be paid handsome sums of money by leading corporations such as Microsoft and the NFL for “consulting services”? Being tenured at Harvard or called into the Oval Office gives one a sense of invulnerability and a presumption that the rules don’t apply to you.

All this matters, not because these are the personal peccadillos of a few petty egomaniacs, but because these are the type of people forming the iron triangle of the government-corporate-academic elite in America today. Credentialism and pedigree (conferred often for holding the “right” opinions) get one invited into the fraternity of the socially powerful, which is a lifetime appointment, revocable only for making the type of stupid mistakes now bedeviling both Gruber and Edelman.

Which is why they both looked like deer in the headlights when caught. Who knows what actually went through Gruber’s head when he spilled the beans and displayed the contempt he and Obamacare’s crafters held for the American voter and our political process. But you can be sure he never thought twice that he would be held to account for his comments. After all, he had been the man in the room, possessed of far more knowledge than those not fortunate enough to see just how the political game was played. If he chose to open his kimono a bit, well, then that was simply his benevolent enlightenment of the not-as-fortunate academic masses whom he was addressing.