Along the same lines, political leaders often pose as being in touch with the electorate when they are anything but. Take for example the group of manipulative public image handlers who landed President Bush on an aircraft carrier in that silly "Top Gun" outfit and then displayed a "Mission Accomplished" sign behind him they claim was put up by the sailors. Another case in point was Howard Dean's absurd comments that in effect painted all Southerners as rebel-flag waving rubes in need of enlightenment.
In other words, Goldberg's bubble is the true big tent, housing those on both sides of the political aisle. Make no mistake: Everyone from D.C. journalists to most U.S. representatives and senators draw an unstated and perhaps unconscious line in their minds and actions between their colleagues they see every day and those who live "back home." Most of them will tell you they are in touch with heartland America. What they won't tell you -- or admit to themselves -- is that this communion with the common man comes only occasionally, and only on the elitists' own terms.
---Read Townhall.com reviews of "Arrogance" and "Bias"---
Next comes Wall Street. Almost two years after the excesses of Enron were first revealed, we still witness a small bubble of mostly exclusive New York financiers and business executives who make a career of scratching each other's backs. Meanwhile, the rest of America, whose hard-earned dollars make up the mutual and pension funds with which the elites play, were struggling to accept the declining values and continued "management" and "broker's fees." It was nothing shy of outrageous that it took more than 24 hours for this financial fraternity to toss out New York Stock Exchange President Dick Grasso once his ridiculous "deferred compensation" package was revealed. What could be more out of touch?
And then there's Hollywood, home to so much conceit and excess as to prevent more than a casual glance here. The pitiful performance of this year's fall line-up of shows on network TV is proof positive that the entertainment industry is stocked with an insular bunch of "let's do lunch" types who would never dare look outside their own bubble. Most of them can't even imagine letting anyone besides their own house hacks rework another tired story idea for this season's broadcasts.
All this isn't to say there isn't a growing, if still modest, conservative media elite that can be just as clannish and short-sighted as the left-leaning one Goldberg exposes.
A solution? I like one of Goldberg's. He suggests moving some of the major national news broadcasts to new locations outside of New York. How about the evening news from Topeka, Dallas or Jacksonville? According to Goldberg, that would force talking-head superstars to interact with mainstream Americans. And why not the same prescription for Hollywood and Wall Street kingpins? (Remember, we now have automated securities trading.) As for Washington, our founders never intended that Congress should be a full-time profession.
But for now, Americans have only one effective response: Bring the political elite -- and thereby perhaps their media and financial friends and allies -- back down to earth by voting them a one-way ticket back home.