A Defeat for the Effete Elite

A recent piece by the Brookings Institute, an organization dedicated to the advocacy of brooking manufacturers, merchants and enthusiasts, tries to make the case that President-elect Trump’s campaign positions stand in opposition to the well being of the nation’s cities and their “badly needed investments in innovation, infrastructure, and children and youth.”

I found the analysis after seeing a segment of it being cited to scoff at the Electoral College, claiming it nullifies the votes of those in urban areas who contribute so much more to the nation’s prosperity:

The emergence of New Localism is particularly potent given the fact that our nation’s 388 metropolitan areas house 84 percent of our population and generate 91 percent of our gross domestic product. The top 100 metropolitan areas alone contain two-thirds of our population and generate three-quarters of our gross domestic product. The bottom line—as metropolitan areas succeed, so does the nation.

So now the urbane one percenters are the good guys who just can’t cough up enough to support their minions, and need federally funded safe spaces to protect themselves from the incoming administration?

I wonder how successful those bright blue islands would be without the goods and services from the ruddy-necked denizens of flyover country.

How efficient would those producing nine-tenths of the nation’s GDP be, using only the energy supplied by their own metropolitan areas? Would putting solar panels in Central Park and wind farms in Santa Monica make up for the coal and natural gas that’s now providing two-thirds of the electricity generated in the U.S.?

Would the unctuous, self-righteous secretions from Hollywood’s awards shows yield enough fuel to fly Leo DiCaprio’s private jet back and forth from his eco-friendly resort in Belize, to climate conferences, to the southern tip of the planet just to be able to find some snow to film his latest production?

Anyone for some Chicago-grown arugula? Don’t worry, plants don’t absorb as much lead from stray bullets in the soil as you might think. No, the agriculture realm remains largely beyond the nation’s beltways.

“But come on, you ignorant bumpkin,” you may say, if you’re an analyst for a think tank that’s more firmly entrenched in the establishment than a hagfish embedded in a whale carcass, “certainly the genteel giants who have been in power since the Democrats took charge of Detroit know what’s best for the nation.”

Of course. And in the tradition of such fine leadership, the Democratic Socialist State of California has recently passed a law that will force dairy farms to reduce methane emissions to 40 percent below their 2013 levels by 2030. When he signed it in September, Governor Jerry Brown said, “This bill curbs these dangerous pollutants and thereby protects public health and slows climate change.”

Yes, the city-dwelling autocrats can sleep well, knowing that they’ve done their part to save the planet from the perils of cow flatulence. Seriously.

Seriously.

I’m sure it will work, because farmers with pitchforks are no match for elitists with pens and phones, and they’ll just go out of business rather than deal with the Brazil-like bureaucracy. But who cares? It’s not like they’re performing a vital service, like putting cancer warning tags on power cords.

Please explain to us again why Democrats continue to struggle to hold governorships and majorities in state legislatures. Oh yeah — sorry, I forgot — because fake news and Russian haxors.