The Atlantic

It’s Time to Hold American Elites Accountable for Their Abuses

If Democrats want to address simmering middle-class anger, they need to deliver justice.
Source: Gretchen Ertl / Reuters

Normally, a scandal centered on how rich parents used bribes to win their children’s admittance into elite colleges wouldn’t play so heavily in the national news. No one much cared when Donald Trump promised large donations as his children enrolled at Penn. But the outrage over the Varsity Blues investigation perfectly illustrates what may be the most important, least understood, and underappreciated political dynamic of our era: a full-on middle-class revolt against the elites and the privileges they hoard. For all the focus on inequality and social justice, this middle-class revolt is the most important barrier standing between Democrats and the White House. They can’t afford to ignore it.

Think of what’s happened over the past decade and a half. America endured a war

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