Limousine liberal

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Limousine liberal (also latte liberal, limousine leftist, learjet liberal, lakefront liberal, lexus liberal, parlor pink, white wine socialist or champagne socialist) is a pejorative North American (USA and Canada) political term for an affluent, usually well-educated liberal (American) or liberal (Canadian) who vocalizes a deep personal empathy for those in the lower social classes who suffer from a poor standard of living, despite having no experience with privation and living a lifestyle which clearly demonstrates their status as privileged member of the upper class.

The idea is that the "limousine liberals" support progressive causes more at the intellectual level but are not generally involved in grass-roots organizing. They may contribute financially. The term can also carry the connotation of someone expressing concern for the poor and improving the environment who does not spend any considerable portion of their time or money to help. Further, it is used to illustrate perceived hypocrisy, such as someone calling for the use of mass transit while they themselves frequently use private jets (ergo: learjet liberal).^[1]

Contents 1 Formation and early use 2 Later use 3 Other countries 4 References 5 See also

[edit] Formation and early use

Democratic New York City mayoral hopeful Mario Procaccino coined the term to describe Republican Mayor John Lindsay and his wealthy Manhattan backers during a heated 1969 campaign. It was a populist epithet, carrying an implicit accusation that the people it described were insulated from all negative consequences of their programs intended 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 blacks over working-class whites.^[2]

One Procaccino campaign memo attacked "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]

[edit] Later use

In the 1970s, the term was applied to wealthy liberal supporters of open-housing and forced school busing who didn't make use of public schooling.^[5] In Boston, Massachusetts, supporters of busing, such as Senator Ted Kennedy, sent their children to private schools or lived in affluent suburbs. To some South Boston residents, Kennedy's support of a plan that "integrated" their children with blacks and his apparent unwillingness to do the same with his own children, seemed like hypocrisy.^[6]

By the late 1990s and early 21st century, the term has also come to be applied to those who support environmentalist or "green" goals, such as mass transit, yet drive large SUVs or literally have a limousine and driver. The Weekly Standard applied the term to Sheila Jackson Lee for being "routinely chauffeured the one short block to work--in a government car, by a member of her staff, at the taxpayers' expense."^[7]

Recently, the New York Observer has applied the term to 2008 Democratic candidate John Edwards for paying $400 for a haircut and, according to the newspaper, "lectures about poverty while living in gated opulence". ^[8]

[edit] Other countries

In Australia and New Zealand, a roughly equivalent insult of chardonnay socialist is used; in the United Kingdom the phrase champagne socialist or Bollinger Bolshevik is preferred, and in France such people are referred to as the gauche caviar ("caviar left"). In Portugal "Esquerda caviar" is used, basically a direct translation of the French term. In Germany "Toskana Fraktion" is used. In Italy, the term "radical chic" (borrowed from American journalist Tom Wolfe's satirical 1970 book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers) is used.

In Peru, many former Maoists and Fidel Castro supporters, who had renounced those views, worked in state agencies during the governments of Valentín Paniagua (2000-2001) and Alejandro Toledo (2001 - 2006) and were paid very high wages in comparison to the income of the average population. They were given the name of "Izquierda Caviar" or "Izquierda Rosa", terms similar to gauche caviar and parlor pink, respectively.^{[citation needed]}

In the Netherlands, a near equivalent of "limousine liberal" would be "cafe socialist". The point of a cafe socialist, however, is not that he does not spend money charitably, but rather that he or she is too high to be actively involved in the class struggle. Charity is seen as a capitalist and conservative project, because it leaves the alleged social structures of hegemony intact, and would even reinforce them (by making the poor dependent on the rich). Charity also implies that mandatory taxation is not needed, or need not collect sufficient funds.

Note that in the United States and in Canada, the usage of the term liberal differs from most of the world. In many countries outside the United States and Canada, "liberalism" refers to right-of-center politics, and particularly to support for laissez faire capitalism, or libertarianism. In contrast, in the United States and in Canada, 'liberal' has a left-wing connotation and is sometimes used somewhat pejoratively, even by the mainstream media.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Elitism
• Liberal elite
• Chattering class
• Propaganda
• Champagne socialist
• San Francisco values
• Hipster (contemporary subculture)