Keen On America

The Revolting Elites: How Christopher Lasch Predicted Trump and the Crisis of American Democracy

Jul 29, 2025
Soli Ozel, an Istanbul-based political theorist and cultural critic, explores how Christopher Lasch's insights provide a roadmap for the left amidst rising populism. He argues that today's meritocratic elites, disconnected from ordinary Americans, have fueled the rise of figures like Trump. Ozel critiques Kamala Harris as a symbol of elite denial, revealing how progressives can better engage marginalized voters. He emphasizes the need for a new populist coalition that prioritizes material interests over cultural battles, echoing Lasch's warnings from decades past.
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INSIGHT

Elites Abandoned Social Responsibility

  • Christopher Lasch argued that new elites lost noblesse oblige and thus abandoned social responsibility.
  • These elites disdain ordinary people as uncouth and xenophobic, ignoring rather than engaging them.
INSIGHT

Meritocracy Fosters Elite Detachment

  • Lasch connects elite entitlement and loss of noblesse oblige with the ideology of meritocracy.
  • Meritocratic elites see their status as deserved and thus lack responsibility toward society.
INSIGHT

Democracy Must Deliver Goods

  • Democracy's value depends on delivering material and unmaterial goods to people, not its abstract ideal.
  • When it fails to deliver, citizens may lose faith in democracy itself.
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