andrew_gelman_stats andrew_gelman_stats-2012 andrew_gelman_stats-2012-1169 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
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Introduction: The other day I posted some comments on the voting patterns of rich and poor in the context of Charles Murray’s recent book, “Coming Apart.” My graphs on income and voting are just fine, but I mischaracterized Murray’s statements. So I want to fix that right away. After that I have some thoughts on the book itself. In brief: 1. I was unfair to call him a Tucker Carlson. 2. Murray talks a lot about upper-class liberals. That’s fine but I think his discussion would be improved by also considering upper-class conservatives, given that I see the big culture war occurring within the upper class. 3. Using the case of Joe Paterno as an example, I discuss why Murray’s “preach what you practice” advice could be difficult to carry out in practice. Murray on the top 5% David Frum quoted Murray as writing that the top 5% “tends to be liberal—right? There’s no getting around it. Every way of answering this question produces a yes.” In response, Frum and I both pointed out t
sentIndex sentText sentNum sentScore
1 After his offhand remark about the upper class being liberal (more on that below), Murray takes pains to emphasize that this popular impression is exaggerated, writing, “the essence of the culture of the new upper class is remarkably consistent across the political spectrum. [sent-19, score-1.004]
2 ” The concept of upper-class people being liberal is not central to Murray’s argument; if anything, his point is the opposite, to de-emphasize the liberal tilt of “famous academics, journalists, Hollywooders, etc. [sent-20, score-0.337]
3 ” and rather make the point that, that whatever the political attitudes are of the new upper class, their attitudes and actions isolate them from mainstream America. [sent-21, score-0.601]
4 Getting back to Murray’s upper 5%: as he defines them, I’d guess they are more conservative than the average American on economic issues and more liberal than the average American on social issues. [sent-22, score-0.554]
5 Rather than defining the American upper class as including some job categories but not others, I’d prefer to include all the high-income groups and say that the American upper class is highly divided—that is, polarized. [sent-24, score-0.706]
6 If you take narrow enough slices and focus on the media, academia, and civilian government, you can find groups of elites with liberal attitudes on economic and social issues. [sent-29, score-0.537]
7 The conservative elites tend to live in different places than the liberal elites and they tend to have influence in different ways (consider, for example, decisions about where to build new highways, convention centers, etc. [sent-32, score-0.706]
8 Murray writes about politically liberal rich elites because he disagrees with their politics. [sent-42, score-0.403]
9 The above is not a quote; it’s just my attempt to draw out the implications of Murray’s thesis that the upper class should “preach what it practices” and recommend to ordinary Americans the attitude of long-term responsibility. [sent-44, score-0.419]
10 He considers the new upper class as problematic as a class. [sent-46, score-0.391]
11 And let me also make clear that Murray does not consider the politics of the new upper class in making his case that it’s problematic. [sent-49, score-0.391]
12 Even if the American upper class were 100% conservative, Murray could still be concerned about their disconnect with the masses. [sent-50, score-0.353]
13 Murray’s quiz is interesting but he chooses to separate elites from non-elites in a particular way that makes me think he’s sensitive to the attitudes of politically liberal elites in particular. [sent-60, score-0.631]
14 His recommendation is, “When it comes to marriage and the work ethic, the new upper class must start preaching what it practices. [sent-76, score-0.449]
15 Paterno was acting like the new upper class and simply looking away, allowing crimes to happen under his umbrella of protection. [sent-79, score-0.447]
16 Unfortunately, this sort of behavior would seem to be characteristic of the old upper class as well, so I’m not sure how new this all is. [sent-80, score-0.391]
17 By focusing on the cultural contradictions of liberalism, Murray piques the attention of the liberal elite while lulling the conservative elite into a false sense of security. [sent-94, score-0.382]
18 So which is it: is churchgoing an admirable habit, along the lines of marriage and hard work, that the elites should encourage others to do, or is churchgoing a bit of homespun Americana, like watching football on TV and eating at Applebee’s, that the top 5% should reconnect with? [sent-100, score-0.461]
19 From one side he argues that the upper class has good habits that they should transmit to ordinary Americans; on the other side he says that the upper class should become more like the rest of the country. [sent-102, score-0.772]
20 This connects to my earlier point that much could be gained by considering the diversity of attitudes among the upper class. [sent-104, score-0.36]
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Introduction: The other day I posted some comments on the voting patterns of rich and poor in the context of Charles Murray’s recent book, “Coming Apart.” My graphs on income and voting are just fine, but I mischaracterized Murray’s statements. So I want to fix that right away. After that I have some thoughts on the book itself. In brief: 1. I was unfair to call him a Tucker Carlson. 2. Murray talks a lot about upper-class liberals. That’s fine but I think his discussion would be improved by also considering upper-class conservatives, given that I see the big culture war occurring within the upper class. 3. Using the case of Joe Paterno as an example, I discuss why Murray’s “preach what you practice” advice could be difficult to carry out in practice. Murray on the top 5% David Frum quoted Murray as writing that the top 5% “tends to be liberal—right? There’s no getting around it. Every way of answering this question produces a yes.” In response, Frum and I both pointed out t
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