Limousine liberal

Photo of limousine on street in front of dusk cityscape
The term references limousines as a symbol of affluence.

Limousine liberal and latte liberal are pejorative U.S. political terms used to illustrate perceived hypocritical behavior by affluent liberals and other left-leaning people of upper-class or upper-middle class status. Related terms include "liberal elite", "Brahmin Left", "champagne socialist", "silver-spoon socialist", "Mercedes Marxist", and "Red nobility".

Formation and early use

Procaccino campaign

Democratic New York City mayoral hopeful Mario Procaccino coined the term "limousine liberal" to characterize incumbent mayor John Lindsay and his wealthy Manhattan backers during a heated 1969 campaign. Historian David Callahan says that Procaccino:

...conjured up an acid image of hypocritical wealthy dogooders insulated from the negative fallout of their bad ideas. This theme has remained a staple of conservative attacks ever since.‍[1]

It was a populist and producerist epithet, carrying an implicit accusation that the people it described were insulated from all negative consequences of their programs purported to benefit the poor and that the costs and consequences of such programs would be borne in the main by working-class or lower-middle class people who were not so poor as to be beneficiaries themselves. In particular, Procaccino criticized Lindsay for favoring unemployed minorities, e.g. blacks and Hispanics, over working-class white ethnics.‍[2]

One Procaccino campaign memo criticized "rich super-assimilated people who live on Fifth Avenue and maintain some choice mansions outside the city and have no feeling for the small middle class shopkeeper, home owner, etc. They preach the politics of confrontation and condone violent upheaval in society because they are not touched by it and are protected by their courtiers".‍[3] The Independent later stated that "Lindsay came across as all style and no substance, a 'limousine liberal' who knew nothing of the concerns of the same 'silent majority' that was carrying Richard Nixon to the White House at the very same time."‍[4]

Desegregation

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against school integration delays in Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, former Alabama governor George Wallace denounced the court's decision and called the Justices "limousine hypocrites".‍[5] Wallace continued this line of attack when he ran for governor again in 1970, as Steve Fraser notes:

[H]e railed against "rich folks" in their country clubs and "big old houses" drinking "those martinis with their little fingers up in the air" who were calling for integrated schools. "And guess where their children go to school. They go to lily white private school. They've bought above it all."‍[6]

Later use

The New York Observer applied the term to 2008 Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who paid $400 for a haircut (equivalent to $600 in 2025‍[7]) and, according to the newspaper, "lectures about poverty while living in gated opulence".‍[8]‍[9]

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton used the term latte liberal to criticize (mostly white and high-income) left-leaning people "sit[ing] around the Hamptons" who advocated for the "defund the police" movement and ignored the concerns of African-Americans that suffer under high crime rates and rely on a strong police force.‍[10]‍[11]‍[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Callahan, David (2010). Fortunes of Change: The Rise of the Liberal Rich and the Remaking of America. John Wiley & Sons. p. 123. ISBN 978-0-470-17711-2.
  2. ^ Logan, Andy (January 25, 1998). "Mayoral Follies, The 1969 Edition". The New York Times. ISSN 1553-8095. OCLC 1645522.
  3. ^ Cannato, Vincent J. (2001). The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York. New York: Basic Books. p. 428. ISBN 978-0-465-00843-8.
  4. ^ Cornwell, Rupert (December 22, 2000), "Obituary: John Lindsay", The Independent, London, ISSN 1741-9743, OCLC 185201487, archived from the original on January 7, 2008
  5. ^ Woodward, Bob; Armstrong, Scott (1979). The Brethren. Simon & Schuster. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-671-24110-0.
  6. ^ Fraser, Steve (2016). The Limousine Liberal: How an Incendiary Image United the Right and Fractured America. New York: Basic Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-465-05566-1.
  7. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  8. ^ Kornacki, Steve (May 28, 2007). "Is Edwards An Easy Mark?". The New York Observer. ISSN 1052-2948. Archived from the original on January 7, 2008. Retrieved February 7, 2021.
  9. ^ Fraser 2016, p. 4.
  10. ^ Concha, Joe (September 8, 2020). "MSNBC's Sharpton: Defunding police 'something a latte liberal may go for'". The Hill. ISSN 1521-1568. OCLC 31153202. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  11. ^ Baragona, Justin (September 8, 2020). "Al Sharpton: Defund the Police Is Just Something 'Latte Liberals' Support". The Daily Beast. IAC. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
  12. ^ Cuza, Bobby (July 1, 2020). "Black Council Members Push Back Against Protester Budget Criticism". Spectrum News NY1. Charter Communications. Retrieved December 28, 2020. My working-class people, my homeowners, my tenants, my neighbors—they are not out there screaming and yelling, because they have to work.

Further reading

  • Quotations related to Limousine liberal at Wikiquote
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limousine_liberal