Our bipartisan elite is stuck in the 1990s

American mainstreamers are dominated by an America that existed 40 years ago. There are a few people of older WASP stock hanging about these kinds of meetings. But there is almost nobody from the post-1965 wave of immigration in their ranks.

Relatedly, because at least the pretense of meritocracy must be preserved, American mainstreamers give off a deep sense of being overworked and undercultivated. Their desire for quantifiable studies on social issues is also partly explained by the felt deficiencies of their liberal education. They don’t trust their judgment, and so they overrely on research. Younger American mainstreamers are almost universally products of just a handful of colleges.

Also, mainstreamers know inequality and immobility are a problem, but they think about it in extremely narrow terms. Mainstreamers see inequality primarily as a threat to the consent for continued mainstream rule. If it gets too bad, mainstreamers worry, the people will throw the mainstream out and enact reforms that hurt overall prosperity. But they might also notice that a lack of social mobility secures mediocrities in their class and prohibits outstanding talent from entering into it. It prevents new ideas and observations from entering elite consciousness. In other words, it doesn’t just threaten the consent they need to govern; it weakens their capacity to govern when in office.