The ruling class

At the CPAC conclave this weekend,  the President said: "Socialism is not about the environment, it is not about justice, it is not about virtue. It is about only one thing -- it is called power for the ruling class." While it's unlikely that he came up with that line himself, it most likely reflects his identification of socialism with the rule of Communist parties like those he deals with in North Korea or China, or similarly authoritarian parties in places like Venezuela. Interpreting it more broadly, one wonders whether Donald Trump feels the same way about ruling classes everywhere, regardless of economic systems. It's a very populist thing to say, after all. In effect, he means that ruling classes are out for themselves, interested only in perpetuating their own power. Looking at Leninist or Lenin-inspired regimes that make rule by the vanguard party the precondition of all other goods, this is practically a self-evident truth, though you have to have at least a vestige of liberal aversion to ends justifying means to get worked up about it. Populists everywhere see ruling classes putting their own interests before the public interest, but the range of populist scrutiny varies from place to place, and over time.

From a different but still arguably populist perspective, Donald Trump has been part of the ruling class since before he was President, by virtue of his wealth. From that perspective, Donald Trump is not about making America great again; he is about one thing -- power for Donald Trump. The President himself no doubt sees things differently, and I could believe that he'd sincerely deny belonging to a ruling class. Nevertheless, the Trumps of the world were the targets of the original populist movements in the U.S., and the Trumps or  Kochs of today remain the targets of those who long for a populism of the left. Much has changed since the 1890s heyday of OG populism, most notably the power of the state over the economy, so that it's at least not fantastical to focus on the political class rather than the upper class as the ruling class. It's more fantastical, however, to act as if the upper class isn't still part of the ruling class by virtue of their wealth, their control over jobs, access to politicians, etc. -- all of which is not about freedom or prosperity for all but about the power (and wealth) of the upper class. In short, every movement has its blind spots, and every movement is out for itself -- though not necessarily exclusively or at everyone else's expense. Any ruling class or segment of a ruling class will be an object of suspicion so long as power itself is an object of suspicion in historically liberal societies. But just as power is a necessity, a jealous consciousness of a "ruling class" may be inevitable. Where each person sees the ruling class, and how jealous or fearful you feel toward it, probably depends on each person's ambition, and the sort of power you want to have in the world.