America’s elite have lost their commitment to their country

From the St. Louis Today editorial page...


http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/1F0CA7579E1E098F862570A00051361A?OpenDocument

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America’s elite have lost their commitment to their country
By Michael Barone

Thursday, Oct. 20 2005

Soldiers of the Army’s Special Forces, as my U.S. News & World Report colleague
Linda Robinson writes in her riveting book, “Masters of Chaos,” are very much
aware of “the tradition of their military history.”
On the eve of a difficult mission, “more than one soldier went to sleep hoping
that the next days would prove him a worthy member of that lineage.” One reason
the military maintains the names and numbers of old units is so soldiers will
be motivated to match the deeds of those who came before and prove worthy to
those who come after.
Similarly, one of the comforts of attending religious services is the knowledge
that you are doing what others have done before you and others will do after.
And most Americans feel a shiver when they hear “The Star-Spangled Banner”
played and reflect on the triumphs and tragedies that those serving under that
flag have won and suffered over more than 200 years.
But not all of us cherish ties to past traditions. In his 2004 book, “Who Are
We” Samuel Huntington wrote that “America’s business, professional,
intellectual and academic elites . . . abandon commitment to their nation and
their fellow citizens, and argue the moral superiority of identifying with
humanity at large.”
This gap is something new in our history. In the later stages of the Vietnam
War — a war begun by elite liberals — elites on campuses began taking an
adversarial posture toward their own country. Later, with globalization, a
transnational mindset grew among corporate and professional elites. Legal
elites, too: Some Supreme Court justices have taken to citing foreign law as
one basis for interpreting the U.S. Constitution.
This gap between transnational elites and the patriotic public has
reverberations in partisan politics. Americans in military service and those
with strong religious beliefs now vote heavily Republican. Americans with
strong patriotic feelings are more closely split, but the growing minority with
transnational attitudes vote heavily Democratic. Which doesn’t necessarily help
the Democratic Party.
Democrats Bill Galston and Elaine Kamarck, both Clinton administration
veterans, point out in a recent paper that two-thirds of liberals reject
pre-emptive use of military force and want to cut the defense budget, while
only one-third of the electorate agrees. “To the extent that liberals now
constitute both the largest bloc within the Democratic coalition and the public
face of the party,” they conclude, “Democratic candidates for national office
will be running uphill.”
Ties to those who came before provide a sense of purpose rooted in history and
tested over time. Most Americans sense they need such ties to the past, to
judge from the millions buying books about the Founding Fathers.
We Americans are lucky to live in a country with a history full of noble ideas,
great leaders and awe-inspiring accomplishments. Sadly, many of our elites want
no part of it.

Copyright Creators Syndicate
E-mail: michaelbarone@michaelbarone.com
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