American Ruling Class

In the spirit of Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain, and H.L. Mencken politics can be defined as the tactics of manipulating the many to act in the strategic interest of the few. In the United States the many and the few are usually defined along racial/ethnic lines. The practice of racial politics, however, does nothing but muddy the waters confusing the political tactic of manipulation with long term political strategy of control.

In the United States the economic system pervading every aspect of American society, informing virtually all human relationships is capitalism. With the exception of the very earliest hunter-gatherer societies, every past economic system including capitalism gives rise to social classes. Social classes are rooted in and differentiated by how much wealth each social class owns or controls. According to the Federal Reserve the wealth of the top one percent of Americans is greater than that of the bottom 95 percent. A Federal Reserve study dated March 6, 2006 reports that the consumer debt now exceeds 11.45 trillion dollars, the highest in U.S. history (not to mention the added tax burden on the lower classes by the Federal national debt of 8.5 trillion dollars).

It’s one thing to establish the objective existence of a small wealthy upper class but quite another to show if that upper class is a ruling class conscious of itself and acting in it’s own interests even if their upper class interest is diametrically opposed to the “national interest.” More than a century of academic and scholarly research shows conclusively that the American Upper Class is a Ruling Class. Thorsten Veblen’s 1899 study titled “Theory of the Leisure Class” which was responsible for introducing “conspicuous consumption” into the language is among the earliest works showing the connection between upper class and ruling class. Other studies of the American Upper Class as a ruling class include Ferdinand Lundberg’s “America’s 60 Families” (1938), “The Power Elite” by C. Wright Mills (1956), “The Protestant Establishment” by E. Digby Baltzell (1964), and G. William Domhoff’s study “Who Rules America” (1967, 1983, 1998).

The biggest fear the American Ruling Class faces is the loss of its ability to manipulate the lower classes should the middle and working classes become conscious of itself as distinct classes and begin to act in alliance for it’s collective interest. In other words, above all else the American Ruling Class fears a two sided class war. To suppress class consciousness by spreading “false consciousness” among the lower classes, the American Ruling Class uses it’s manipulative powers to divide and conquer by attacking working class ethnic immigrants (Mexicans), gays (Defense of Marriage Act), women (anti-abortion), flag burners, welfare, teachers, nurses, national health care, minimum vs. living wages , and all those who oppose the Iraq war where working class kids are dying by the thousands. So far class warfare in the United States has been a one sided fight. I suspect the fight may be joined sooner than many think.