Class Envy

This is an illustration of the class envy problem we're up against. Okay, so here we've got the Democrat Party, which has made a career and a life out of bashing the wealthy when they are the wealthy.


It's good that we have Rush Limbaugh, as he did here in April, remind us that it is wealthy Democrats who suffer from a "class envy problem." Apparently, we were misinformed about the political affiliation of the nation's best-known ex-governor, who recently told Laura Ingraham (audio below, for those with a strong stomach):

I think the majority of Americans don't want to put up with the blue bloods. And I say it with all due respect because I love the Bushes. The blue bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition to pick and choose the winners.

Palin's crack about blue bloods was prompted when, asked a question by Larry King, Barbara Bush explained "I sat next to her once, thought she was beautiful, and I think she's very happy in Alaska. And I hope she'll stay there." Palin's crack about "blue bloods" sounds an awful lot like class envy, made no less so by her expression of victimization, the allegation that a response to a question constitutes an efort "to pick and choose the winners." And it is class envy by one who was among the wealthy back in April of this year, when she was much poorer than today:

Former Alaska governor has earned roughly $12 million since stepping down from her job as Alaska governor at the end of July, according to a "conservative estimate" on the part of ABC News.

Palin had been making $125,000 per year as Alaska's governor.

The controversial 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee was reportedly paid $7 million for her book "Going Rogue," mostly after she stepped down. She is said to be getting $250,000 per episode for her television series on the Learning Channel and charge up to $100,000 deliver a speech, which she does regularly.

ABC News writes that Palin's earnings are "probably much higher" than $12 million since she left the governorship, "but is hard to quantify because Palin does not publicize her earnings." She has not disclosed what she is being paid by Fox News to serve as a contributor or her earnings from her planned second book.

But apparently the dreaded "blue bloods," such as the Bushes, are a little more reticent about flaunting their sense of privilege than the self-described "everyday, working-class American":

Palin's contract for a June speech at California State University, found in a campus trash bin by students, dictates that she gets "first-class airfare for two and three rooms at a luxury hotel" for a speech in June, according to the Associated Press; her lectern must also be stocked with water bottles and bendable straws.

When first reported earlier this year, this story highlighting the self-absorption of the half-governor might have seemed overwrought or even a little petty. But here she was, the other day, reacting not to an idle comment by a former First Lady but rather a response to a question. The sentiment itself is nearly inarguable: Palin is attractive, obviously happy in Alaska, and unqualified to be President of the most important nation on earth. It is also more diplomatic and tasteful than commenting: "she is superficial, self-absorbed, and radical."

Tact, it appears, is a virtue only among those "blue bloods" detested by Mrs. Palin.

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