Barbara Ehrenreich: Dude, Where's That Elite?: "Like the notion of social class itself, the idea of a liberal elite originated on the left, among early 20th-century anarchists and Trotskyites who noted, correctly, that the Soviet Union was spawning a 'new class' of power-mad bureaucrats. The Trotskyites brought this theory along with them when they mutated into neocons in the 60's, and it was perhaps their most precious contribution to the emerging American right. Backed up by the concept of a 'liberal elite,' right-wingers could crony around with their corporate patrons in luxuriously appointed think tanks and boardrooms - all the while purporting to represent the average overworked Joe."
