Elites Out-of-Touch on Guns and Global Warming

Michael Barone writes today about the declining influence the elites have over us common folk on the issue of guns and global warming:

Many years ago, political scientists came up with a theory that elites lead public opinion. And on some issues, they clearly do. But on some issues, they don't. Two examples of the latter phenomenon are conspicuous at a time when Barack Obama enjoys the approval of more than 60 percent of Americans and Democrats have won thumping majorities in two elections in a row. One is global warming. The other is gun control. On both issues, the elites of academe, the media and big business have been solidly on one side for years. But on both, the American public has been moving in the other direction. ...

Some of these shifts in opinion may be responses to events that liberal elites have not deigned to notice. Forty of the 50 states now have concealed weapons laws that allow law-abiding citizens to get permits to carry guns. Gun controllers predicted these would result in traffic shootouts and general mayhem. They haven't. It turns out that criminals are deterred from attacks less by gun-control laws than by the possibility that their intended victims may be armed. As for global warming, many Americans may have noticed that temperatures actually haven't been rising over the past decade, as global warming alarmists predicted. The elites are able to hire armed security guards and jet off on private jets, so they are less likely to notice these things.

I think there's something else at work here. For liberal elites, belief in gun control and global warming has taken on the character of religious faith. We have sinned (by hoarding guns or driving SUVs); we must atone (by turning in our guns or recycling); we must repent (by supporting gun control or cap and trade schemes). You may notice that the "we" in question is usually the great mass of ordinary American citizens.

The liberal elite is less interested in giving up its luxuries (Al Gore purchases carbon offsets to compensate for his huge mansion and private jet travel) than in changing the lifestyle of the masses, who selfishly insist on living in suburbs and keeping guns for recreation or protection. Ordinary Americans are seen not as responsible fellow citizens building stable communities but as greedy masses, who must be disciplined to live according to the elite's religious dogmas.

It should not be completely surprising that over time, these views have become less congenial to the masses, who are the object of such condescension. Democratic officeholders, who must live by the discipline of the ballot, have noticed. Party leaders did not press to re-enact the assault weapons ban when it expired and currently are flummoxed by the backbenchers who are resisting a cap and trade bill that would impose huge costs on those who use electricity. Elites may lead, but Americans do not always follow.

Barone also has some detail on the actual polling. You can read here for the details.

Environmentalism, and especially global warming activism, has become a religious belief for many. That's what makes it so easy to ignore the scientific evidence that shows that global warming ended in 1998. When you operate solely on faith, facts don't mean a lot.

It has also become a winning business model. Al Gore has made himself fantastically wealthy acting as the religion's high priest. And all the while he continues to live in an electron-gobbling mansion and jet around the world in carbon-spewing private jets. The carbon indulgences he buys may help salve his conscience, but the common folk know hypocrisy when they see it. He may have become wealthy by taking the money of the guilt-ridden elites to fund his lavish lifestyle, but the rest of us aren't buying.

And on gun control all you have to do is look at the cities with the highest rates of gun violence and you will find cities with the highest levels of gun control. Not gun ownership, but gun control.

There is no more restrictive city than Washington D.C., which until recently banned the ownership of handguns altogether, not just concealed weapons. Criminals had the city to themselves (and I'm not just talking Congress here). Now that people can start buying handguns for home protection, let's watch and see what the crime rates do in that city.