ICYMI: Ivy League Republicans’ phony rebellion against the ‘elites’ [Washington Post]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Washington Post (Opinion): Ivy League Republicans’ phony rebellion against the ‘elites’
By Dana Millbank
March 25, 2022

Key Points:

•  A new generation of pretend populists aims to join… the Senate.

• In Nevada, Republican candidate Adam Laxalt portrays himself as a modern-day Robespierre. He has repeatedly warned of the “rich elites … taking over America,” “elites in Washington,” the “coastal elites,” the “elites” who “do not believe in our nation” and the “elites” who are “all in one club” while “we’re all in another club.”

• “We”? Laxalt is the grandson of a U.S. senator and governor of Nevada and the son of a Washington lobbyist. He is a graduate of prep school, Georgetown University and Georgetown Law School who recently hauled in $2.2 million as a partner at Cooper & Kirk, the same Washington firm that employed those plebeians Cotton and Cruz.

• In Pennsylvania, Republican Dave McCormick…boasts about his youth spent baling hay and bussing tables, and his ads are about hunting, football, and an “us” vs. “them” theme that targets Big Tech.

• So who’s “us”? Well, McCormick was head of one of the world’s largest hedge funds. His wife is a Goldman Sachs executive and White House veteran. A who’s who of hedge fund billionaires is financing his campaign.

• In Arizona, Republican Senate candidate Jim Lamon professes to speak for “we the people.” He denounced Washington for “being one of the richest Zip codes in our country.”

• This particular common man sold his solar energy business to Koch Industries for a price he put at $1 billion — and he vows to self-fund his campaign with $50 million.

• Then there’s J.D. Vance, Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, who bemoans that “our elites don’t care about the American people” and the “elites in the ruling class in this country are robbing us blind.”

• “Us”? Before running for office, Vance, another Yale Law School graduate, allowed that it was “objectively true” that he’s an elite. Now Vance even attacks Republican elites, saying, “Establishment Republican apologies for our oligarchy should always come with the following disclaimer: ‘Big Tech pays my salary.’”

• So who pays Vance’s salary? CNBC reported that “a great deal” of Vance’s income came from ventures linked to Big Tech billionaire investor Peter Thiel and other tech investors.
  
• That’s some elite-level phoniness.

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