It’s true, of course, that most well-off people come from at least reasonably well-off parents. … But it’s also true — and increasingly so, I’d say — that society is run largely for the benefit of the upper quintile, if not the upper decile, and all sorts of policies both reflect and reinforce that. Indeed, pushback against that, and the over-the-top reaction thereto, is the hallmark of Trump-era politics.

[The concentration of wealth and power into the hands of an oligarchical elite is what prompted wildfire populism in both parties in 2016, thanks in part to the early indications that the presidential election would pit the establishments of elites in both parties against each other — Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush. That may have been unfair to Bush, at least a little, both parties fueled it by laying out a clear path to a Bush/Clinton election. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders disrupted that, thanks to exactly what Glenn cites here: revenge of the lower nine deciles. — Ed]