Murray on the "New Elite"

The idea of a "new elite" [I prefer the term "new class"] has been much commented on lately. Scholars have been discussing it's emergence and development for several decades now, but recently the idea has oozed out of academia into the general culture and become a political issue. Charles Murray writes:

That a New Elite has emerged over the past 30 years is not really controversial. That its members differ from former elites is not controversial. What sets the tea party apart from other observers of the New Elite is its hostility, rooted in the charge that elites are isolated from mainstream America and ignorant about the lives of ordinary Americans. 

Let me propose that those allegations have merit. 

 That of course is the essence of the Tea Party movement's challenge to technocratic authority, but the problems are far broader and of much longer duration than he appreciates. This is a subject that interests me greatly and I will be returning to it time and again in future posts as I work out my understanding of the phenomenon. Link to Murray's article.