I am a fan of David Brooks, but his June 6, 2024 NYT column “The Sins of the Educated Class” was such a wrong-headed diagnosis of our country’s problem that I started composing a reply, but Robert Reich published a great reply (link below) before I could finish. I have a couple things to add.

Brooks sees it as a problem that at elite universities “the share of progressive students and professors has steadily risen, and the share of conservatives has approached zero”. He misses 2 things: 

1. The Trump GOP doesn’t accept science or expertise as a basis for policy. The President told us from the White House podium to inject bleach and not believe Drs. Nancy Messonnier and Fauci. Adding to human knowledge (especially via the scientific method) is part of the mission statement of most (perhaps all) elite universities. This eliminates the current GOP partisans that Brooks seems to want to bring in, as they reject the mission statement of our great universities (and even propose eliminating the Department of Education in 2025 if they win).

2. As Prof Reich points out, “To be a “progressive” at a prestigious university these days - indeed, to be a progressive anywhere in America - is no longer to be on the political left as the left used to be defined. It’s to be on the side of the constitution, the rule of law, and a modicum of decency.”

I suggest our problem is massive wealth and income inequality combined with unlimited dark money in politics. The wealthy have flooded American politics with money (since the Roberts Court gave them this right), which buys them tax cuts and deregulation and, when they really screw up, bailouts. All of which leads to the inequality getting worse every year - the top 1% get richer, and the working class get left farther behind.

Some of the uber rich are from elite universities, but many are not. Many people from elite universities work to reduce this inequality - e.g., they use their law degrees to enforce the rule of law as public prosecutors, and protect labor rights, civil rights, and voting rights. An elite education is not the problem.

Prof Reich’s summary is perfect: “Brooks and other conservatives are dead wrong about which elite is holding back the rest of America. It’s not the educated class. It’s the moneyed class.”

[1] I highly recommend Prof. Reich’s column: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/11/income-inequality-college-graduates-finance-consulting?CMP=GTUS_email