Fake populists like Elise Stefanik (Harvard ’06) and Josh Hawley (Yale ’06) attack higher ed to protect corporations and the rich
More than a third of Harvard’s graduating seniors are heading into finance or management consulting – two professions notable for how quickly their practitioners “make a bag”, or make money, reports the New York Times*.*
Similar percentages show up in other prestigious universities.
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In this era of raging income inequality and billionaire robber barons, the bags are gigantic. At Goldman Sachs they start at $105,000 to $164,000. At McKinsey, $100,000 to $140,000.
And that’s just the first year.
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America’s corporate and financial elites have flooded American politics with money in order to receive government subsidies, bailouts, tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks – all of which ratchet up their wealth, entrench their power and make it harder for average working people to advance.
Trump and much of his Republican party are deploying criticisms of the educated class to pose as populists on the side of the people.
Consider Elise Stefanik, Harvard class of ’06 and chair of the House Republican Conference, who doesn’t miss an opportunity to attack elite universities and their presidents. Or Senator Josh Hawley, Stanford class of ’02 and Yale Law ’06, who calls the recent student demonstrations signs of “moral rot”.
It’s all a thinly veiled cover for their efforts to help the wealthy make even bigger bags while keeping everyone else – especially average workers – down.
Lots of folks have been yelling this since the dawn of the new populist movement era. Sowing and inflaming interclass division is the best way to keep the people from uniting to take down the ultra rich and their corporations.
Look how much more effort went into it after 2008. That shit show woke up a lot of people to just how fucked up the financial system is, especially after seeing almost no one face any sort of real justice. I’d say the rise of the “tea party” (who eventually transformed into MAGA) came about right around that crisis. A black person being elected also certainly played a part, especially when that black person started trying to lay the groundwork for universal healthcare (the original Affordable Healthcare plan was far better than the extremely neutered, butchered version that eventually got passed).
Sorry, bit of a tangent. I just get so angry about the extreme polarization, because it’s so damn effective at dividing us against the true enemies of the people.
