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The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It
In this profound and incisive work, Angelo M. Codevilla introduces readers to the Ruling Class, the group of bipartisan political elites who run America. This Ruling Class, educated at prestigious universities and convinced of its own superiority, has everything to gain by raising taxes and expanding the reach of government. This class maintains that it knows what is best and continually increases its power over every facet of American life, from family and marriage to the environment, guns, and God.It is becoming increasingly apparent that this Ruling Class does not represent the interests of the majority of Americans, who value self-rule and the freedom on whose promise America was founded. Millions of Americans are now reasserting our right to obey the Constitution, not the Ruling Class. This desire transcends all organizations and joins independents, Republicans, and Democrats into The Country Party, whose members embody the ideas and habits that made America great. The majority of Americans feel that the Ruling Class is demeaning us, impoverishing us, demoralizing us, and want to be rid of it.
147 pages, Paperback
First published August 27, 2010
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568 people want to read
About the author
Angelo M. Codevilla
25 books32 followersAngelo M. Codevilla is professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University. Educated at Rutgers (1965) Notre Dame (1968), and the Claremont graduate university (1973), Codevilla served in the US Navy, the US Foreign Service, and on the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He taught philosophy at Georgetown, classified intelligence matters at the US Naval Post graduate School. During a decade at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, he wrote books on war, intelligence, and the character of nations. At Boston University, he taught international relations from the perspectives of history and character.
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June 19, 2018
I stay away from the shouters, such as Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. Sure, they’re right in their conclusions, most of the time, but the lack of nuanced thought annoys me. There are plenty of ways to get easily worked up today, without seeking out more that don’t offer a corresponding benefit. Angelo Codevilla is not a shouter, but this is at least a half-shouter book, as shown by that Limbaugh wrote the Introduction. As is the case with most books of conservative woe, it has nothing of substance to offer about how to fix the problems it identifies. Still, it has one interesting insight, and one cautionary lesson. And I am here to offer the solution to the problem Codevilla talks about. It’s not even radical!
I chose this book to read as a follow-up to Richard Reeves’s "Dream Hoarders." My review of that book discussed that an American aristocracy has always existed, and is natural, but that our current aristocracy, roughly equivalent to the “upper middle class” on which Reeves focuses, is terrible, fulfilling none of the duties expected of a normal aristocracy yet doubling down on parasitism. I thought that Codevilla’s discussion of the Ruling Class might add additional insight, and I was not disappointed, though the insight I found was not actually in the book itself.
The frame of this short book is the indisputable fact that the Ruling Class in America is a small minority, which has beliefs radically different from the “Country Class.” (Codevilla seems to use “Country” to mean “the rest of the country,” not “rural,” but it’s a bit of a confusing moniker, not helped by its echoes of Robert Walpole and early eighteenth-century English politics, which might be deliberate but are never mentioned.) The Ruling Class corresponds to what conservatives sometimes call the “clerisy,” the rotten crust of American society that holds power in government, the news and entertainment media, academia, and big companies, and dictates leftist values to the rest of us, using its stranglehold on all the levers of power. The specific elements that most exercise Codevilla are the Ruling Class’s attempts to destroy the family and remove the education of children from parents, the denigration of religious belief, and crony capitalism (including the TARP bailouts and similar actions—this book was written in 2010, so those were fresh and ongoing), but it’s easy enough to create a much longer laundry list. The Country Class, by contrast, is defined more broadly, without an ideology, but “may well be defined in terms of its lack of connection with government,” as well as, generally speaking, by views opposed to the combination of leftist ideology and statist corruption that characterizes the Ruling Class.
Codevilla claims that the Country Class represents a “supermajority.” I am not so sure this is true, and if it is true, it is true at such a high level of generality as to be useless. That is, people answer surveys to the effect they are unhappy with the current party system and with the Ruling Class, but at the same time they gladly accept handouts of taxpayer money (including Social Security and Medicare, along with a vast range of other corruption, such as ethanol mandates), and squeal at the very idea that their handouts, which they earned, dammit!, might be cut. Such people may claim to be part of, and Codevilla may include them in, the Country Class, but they are part of the problem, not the solution, so my guess is that Codevilla’s supermajority doesn’t exist in any practical form when voting happens. Political virtue, to the extent that it requires any sacrifice at all, has not only left the building but is burning rubber for the county line.
That’s the sum of the book, ending with a section addressing solutions. Those are just some meandering attempts to avoid the conclusion that there are no practical solutions. Codevilla implies that he realizes this. Basically, he mutters that we need a deus ex machina, which is true, but not very helpful. He is reduced to calling for the Country Class “mobilizing itself against [the Ruling Class] on a principled, moral basis—understanding that the system of privileges is dishonest, and being willing to dispense with whatever threads of it they hold.” Not only is that unlikely, given human nature and the decline in virtue, but the Ruling Class is happy to have the masses dispense with those threads—it will leave more juice for them and their clients, and although it removes a means of direct control if people are no longer accepting handouts, the Ruling Class doesn’t need it, since they hold all the cards, including the ability and will to ruin or imprison any member of the Country Class who gets too uppity or who shows signs of causing real problems.
OK, so this book is not wrong, and it doesn’t shout as much as I feared, but it told me nothing that everyone paying attention doesn’t already know. But I promised both an insight and a lesson. The insight I had after reading this book is that our modern, post-World War II aristocracy is terrible most of all for a reason I failed to clearly identify in my review of "Dream Hoarders"—the reliance of the aristocracy on government. It, roughly the upper middle class, the “professional-management elite,” derives the vast majority of its income and its purpose from entanglement with the government. It drains the public coffers for its benefit, then takes actions to replenish those coffers with money, ever more money, stolen at the point of a gun from those outside the aristocracy. They justify this, and their own rule, with an ideology of government supremacy and control that probably would, without further ado, cause any of the Founders to grab a pistol and shoot the speaker in the face. (Other, non-Western, aristocracies have always obtained money from forms of corruption and control of government, and a very small segment has done so intermittently in America since the nineteenth century, but the size and power of government in all such was vastly smaller than today’s government, and they did not derive their purpose from it.) While he does not offer this insight, Codevilla does motion at it when he says, in passing, of the Ruling Class that “their careers and fortunes depend on government.” Without the Cthulhu State, tentacled and malevolent, the Ruling Class could not subsist, since they add no value for anyone and the vast majority have never done an honest day’s work in their lives. Without it, they would have to get real jobs. That is to say, our aristocracy is a vampire—and there is only one thing to do with vampires.
And the cautionary lesson? That is something embedded in this book which the author could not have known. It is the fate of the Tea Party movement in Republican politics. This book was published at the height of the movement. While he does not predict victory for the Tea Party, one of Codevilla’s repeated points is that the Republican Party cannot continue as it is, because its leaders do not represent the Country Class, but rather are members of, or are subservient toadies to, the Ruling Class. The natural conclusion, and to Codevilla the necessary conclusion, is that either the leadership or the party will be replaced, as with the Whigs in the 1850s. Whether that is true is not clear—as long as no viable alternative is offered, Country Class voters will be forced to stick with the Republican Party, and as recently as three years ago that seemed like the fixed future. We would get crony capitalism, and Jeb Bush, and amnesty, and all the rest, whether we liked our castor oil or not. Trump, of course, has changed things, though with what degree of permanence and with what long-term effect is totally opaque. Not that Trump is ideal for the purpose of reworking the party system, but we do not choose the form of our Destructor.
My point is that the Tea Party movement, a dire threat to both the Ruling Class and the Republican leadership, was efficiently and effectively destroyed, in less than three years. It was a distributed movement, with no leading group, much less one leading person. This was a strength, in that it was a real grassroots movement, but it was also a weakness, in that it made it easy to isolate the members and destroy their cohesion. We are told the Internet makes it easy to form new groups, which is true (although the Lords of Tech now know this, and actively try to hamper conservatives in such efforts), but when you are organized over the Internet, it is also easier to feel alone. Knowing this, the Tea Party’s Ruling Class opponents combined two extremely powerful weapons—ridicule by the powerful (mostly using obscene slang in the mainstream press and entertainment media) combined with simple lying. For example, they managed to embed the idea in non-leftist voters that the Tea Party had a racist element. That such accusations of racism were complete, unalloyed lies, yet were easily and successfully spread, merely encouraged the Ruling Class. Nowhere was this more in evidence than in the famous example of several Congressmen claiming that they were subjected to racial epithets while walking through a Tea Party rally, a claim disproved by video, to which the Congressmen responded by shrieking louder that it was true, because they said so.
The media acted as the Ruling Class’s Ministry of Truth, defending the lies made by other members of the Ruling Class and adding other lies, such as claiming that the Tea Party was an astroturf effort. They then threw up a cloud of confusion to enable exposed liars to slink away, and ensured that the least verbal misstep by any Tea Party-affiliated candidate for election was trumpeted around the clock and nationwide (while, as always, hiding any such misstep by leftist candidates). And, we now know, Obama’s government engaged in wide-ranging and criminal actions to directly suppress the Tea Party, most notably (as far as we know, since by definition the Ruling Class can control most information flow) through the Internal Revenue Service hobbling their activities, including by illegally demanding donor lists so they could harass other involved citizens (a tactic brought to its logical conclusion in Wisconsin with armed nighttime SWAT raids on conservative donors). Rather than being jailed for decades, as they should be, the IRS staff involved were promoted, and have never been punished in any way, although a kabuki dance of pretend outrage was conducted by Republicans in Congress, and by Trump as well. Such effective attacks, combined with the fragmentation inherent to all leaderless groups, quickly destroyed the Tea Party.
(As a side note, such attacks might not have destroyed a leftist group in the exact same position. The Tea Party did not offer a transcendent ideology as the Left always offers its acolytes, which makes it harder to survive attacks. For the most part, conservatives just want to live their lives, not obtain meaning from politics, one reason that leftists always pursue their enemies in a way foreign to conservatives—you only have to look at how Communists were never punished for their heinous crimes after the fall of Communism, but any authoritarian rightist government that falls has its members, none of whom committed any crime equivalent to Communism’s, pursued to the ends of the earth.)
So there are the insight and the lesson. But I have a solution to the problem of the Ruling Class. What is the goal of any solution? To erode their power. We now realize that their power and importance revolves around, and grows in sympathetic symbiosis with, the government. We have seen we can’t vote them out of power or cut government as such. But what if we simply made it less appealing to be involved with government, changing nothing else?
As I suggested in my review of "What Washington Gets Wrong," rustication is the answer. In brief, no element of the federal government other than the President and a core staff, Congress and a skeleton staff, and the Supreme Court, should be allowed to have its headquarters located, or more than two percent of its staff and contractors combined, live or work within three hundred miles of Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. Instead, each element of government should be scattered in numerous small satellite offices randomly and evenly geographically distributed around the country, including Alaska and Guam, with only a small percentage in any metropolitan area with more than, say, 250,000 people, and the majority in metropolitan areas of less than 50,000 people. Office space should be mostly “C” grade, with a fraction of “B” grade. Any existing office buildings owned by the government should be sold immediately. In these days of electronic communication, there is no downside to efficiency as a result—in fact, efficiency should go up, as the Ruling Class is able to focus on work, not on the distractions that the Capitol of Panem offers. They will actually get a raise, because their pay will be worth more in places with a lower cost of living. Much more could be developed along these lines, such as placing similar restrictions on lobbyists and businesses that receive government dollars; placing a ten- or fifteen-year absolute bar on being employed, directly or indirectly, in any capacity with government, after leaving government employ; and making it a condition of employment that all children of the government employee attend public schools. But you get the idea—the Ruling Class will have less reason to be involved with government, and they will start to get real jobs.
In the current environment (which I expect to change, but that is another discussion), this is much less of a pipe dream than would be, say, a reactionary reworking of the entire government. In fact, you might be able to get a new political party formed behind this program. Most people would regard this as a common sense reform, and a legitimate and long overdue reaction to overweening government dominance. Critically, they would not see it as a threat to their own turn at the trough. Certainly, the Ruling Class, that is to say, millions of those whose only role and purpose in their careers and lives comes from leeching off the taxpayers, would howl. That would include the leaders of both the Democrats and Republicans. They wouldn’t have any good arguments, though. Nobody is getting hurt in the least. Nobody would even lose his job. Members of the Ruling Class who didn’t want to move could simply find private sector jobs, anywhere they wanted. Government spending, as far as delivery of services, would not decline at all. The poorer areas of the country would benefit as federal dollars were spent on them. No longer would counties contiguous to Washington, D.C. constitute seven of the top ten richest counties in America—they would quickly become among the poorest, which would be all to the good, especially since we could skip repairing the Metro. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this would be a constitutional amendment, to ensure no future backsliding, and I think that with the right leadership this might be possible, though maybe only through the Article V convention method. And once underway, this program would build on itself, since as the Ruling Class’s power eroded, it would become easier to erode further.
This wouldn’t restore virtue to America. Codevilla motions at the heart of the matter when he says, in passing, “resistance to that rule [of the Ruling Class] . . . must deal with secularism’s intellectual and moral core. This lies beyond the boundaries of politics, as the term is commonly understood.” True enough, but we can get the party started, and with a little bit of luck, it’ll turn into the kind of party that improves the nation as a whole. You’re welcome.
I chose this book to read as a follow-up to Richard Reeves’s "Dream Hoarders." My review of that book discussed that an American aristocracy has always existed, and is natural, but that our current aristocracy, roughly equivalent to the “upper middle class” on which Reeves focuses, is terrible, fulfilling none of the duties expected of a normal aristocracy yet doubling down on parasitism. I thought that Codevilla’s discussion of the Ruling Class might add additional insight, and I was not disappointed, though the insight I found was not actually in the book itself.
The frame of this short book is the indisputable fact that the Ruling Class in America is a small minority, which has beliefs radically different from the “Country Class.” (Codevilla seems to use “Country” to mean “the rest of the country,” not “rural,” but it’s a bit of a confusing moniker, not helped by its echoes of Robert Walpole and early eighteenth-century English politics, which might be deliberate but are never mentioned.) The Ruling Class corresponds to what conservatives sometimes call the “clerisy,” the rotten crust of American society that holds power in government, the news and entertainment media, academia, and big companies, and dictates leftist values to the rest of us, using its stranglehold on all the levers of power. The specific elements that most exercise Codevilla are the Ruling Class’s attempts to destroy the family and remove the education of children from parents, the denigration of religious belief, and crony capitalism (including the TARP bailouts and similar actions—this book was written in 2010, so those were fresh and ongoing), but it’s easy enough to create a much longer laundry list. The Country Class, by contrast, is defined more broadly, without an ideology, but “may well be defined in terms of its lack of connection with government,” as well as, generally speaking, by views opposed to the combination of leftist ideology and statist corruption that characterizes the Ruling Class.
Codevilla claims that the Country Class represents a “supermajority.” I am not so sure this is true, and if it is true, it is true at such a high level of generality as to be useless. That is, people answer surveys to the effect they are unhappy with the current party system and with the Ruling Class, but at the same time they gladly accept handouts of taxpayer money (including Social Security and Medicare, along with a vast range of other corruption, such as ethanol mandates), and squeal at the very idea that their handouts, which they earned, dammit!, might be cut. Such people may claim to be part of, and Codevilla may include them in, the Country Class, but they are part of the problem, not the solution, so my guess is that Codevilla’s supermajority doesn’t exist in any practical form when voting happens. Political virtue, to the extent that it requires any sacrifice at all, has not only left the building but is burning rubber for the county line.
That’s the sum of the book, ending with a section addressing solutions. Those are just some meandering attempts to avoid the conclusion that there are no practical solutions. Codevilla implies that he realizes this. Basically, he mutters that we need a deus ex machina, which is true, but not very helpful. He is reduced to calling for the Country Class “mobilizing itself against [the Ruling Class] on a principled, moral basis—understanding that the system of privileges is dishonest, and being willing to dispense with whatever threads of it they hold.” Not only is that unlikely, given human nature and the decline in virtue, but the Ruling Class is happy to have the masses dispense with those threads—it will leave more juice for them and their clients, and although it removes a means of direct control if people are no longer accepting handouts, the Ruling Class doesn’t need it, since they hold all the cards, including the ability and will to ruin or imprison any member of the Country Class who gets too uppity or who shows signs of causing real problems.
OK, so this book is not wrong, and it doesn’t shout as much as I feared, but it told me nothing that everyone paying attention doesn’t already know. But I promised both an insight and a lesson. The insight I had after reading this book is that our modern, post-World War II aristocracy is terrible most of all for a reason I failed to clearly identify in my review of "Dream Hoarders"—the reliance of the aristocracy on government. It, roughly the upper middle class, the “professional-management elite,” derives the vast majority of its income and its purpose from entanglement with the government. It drains the public coffers for its benefit, then takes actions to replenish those coffers with money, ever more money, stolen at the point of a gun from those outside the aristocracy. They justify this, and their own rule, with an ideology of government supremacy and control that probably would, without further ado, cause any of the Founders to grab a pistol and shoot the speaker in the face. (Other, non-Western, aristocracies have always obtained money from forms of corruption and control of government, and a very small segment has done so intermittently in America since the nineteenth century, but the size and power of government in all such was vastly smaller than today’s government, and they did not derive their purpose from it.) While he does not offer this insight, Codevilla does motion at it when he says, in passing, of the Ruling Class that “their careers and fortunes depend on government.” Without the Cthulhu State, tentacled and malevolent, the Ruling Class could not subsist, since they add no value for anyone and the vast majority have never done an honest day’s work in their lives. Without it, they would have to get real jobs. That is to say, our aristocracy is a vampire—and there is only one thing to do with vampires.
And the cautionary lesson? That is something embedded in this book which the author could not have known. It is the fate of the Tea Party movement in Republican politics. This book was published at the height of the movement. While he does not predict victory for the Tea Party, one of Codevilla’s repeated points is that the Republican Party cannot continue as it is, because its leaders do not represent the Country Class, but rather are members of, or are subservient toadies to, the Ruling Class. The natural conclusion, and to Codevilla the necessary conclusion, is that either the leadership or the party will be replaced, as with the Whigs in the 1850s. Whether that is true is not clear—as long as no viable alternative is offered, Country Class voters will be forced to stick with the Republican Party, and as recently as three years ago that seemed like the fixed future. We would get crony capitalism, and Jeb Bush, and amnesty, and all the rest, whether we liked our castor oil or not. Trump, of course, has changed things, though with what degree of permanence and with what long-term effect is totally opaque. Not that Trump is ideal for the purpose of reworking the party system, but we do not choose the form of our Destructor.
My point is that the Tea Party movement, a dire threat to both the Ruling Class and the Republican leadership, was efficiently and effectively destroyed, in less than three years. It was a distributed movement, with no leading group, much less one leading person. This was a strength, in that it was a real grassroots movement, but it was also a weakness, in that it made it easy to isolate the members and destroy their cohesion. We are told the Internet makes it easy to form new groups, which is true (although the Lords of Tech now know this, and actively try to hamper conservatives in such efforts), but when you are organized over the Internet, it is also easier to feel alone. Knowing this, the Tea Party’s Ruling Class opponents combined two extremely powerful weapons—ridicule by the powerful (mostly using obscene slang in the mainstream press and entertainment media) combined with simple lying. For example, they managed to embed the idea in non-leftist voters that the Tea Party had a racist element. That such accusations of racism were complete, unalloyed lies, yet were easily and successfully spread, merely encouraged the Ruling Class. Nowhere was this more in evidence than in the famous example of several Congressmen claiming that they were subjected to racial epithets while walking through a Tea Party rally, a claim disproved by video, to which the Congressmen responded by shrieking louder that it was true, because they said so.
The media acted as the Ruling Class’s Ministry of Truth, defending the lies made by other members of the Ruling Class and adding other lies, such as claiming that the Tea Party was an astroturf effort. They then threw up a cloud of confusion to enable exposed liars to slink away, and ensured that the least verbal misstep by any Tea Party-affiliated candidate for election was trumpeted around the clock and nationwide (while, as always, hiding any such misstep by leftist candidates). And, we now know, Obama’s government engaged in wide-ranging and criminal actions to directly suppress the Tea Party, most notably (as far as we know, since by definition the Ruling Class can control most information flow) through the Internal Revenue Service hobbling their activities, including by illegally demanding donor lists so they could harass other involved citizens (a tactic brought to its logical conclusion in Wisconsin with armed nighttime SWAT raids on conservative donors). Rather than being jailed for decades, as they should be, the IRS staff involved were promoted, and have never been punished in any way, although a kabuki dance of pretend outrage was conducted by Republicans in Congress, and by Trump as well. Such effective attacks, combined with the fragmentation inherent to all leaderless groups, quickly destroyed the Tea Party.
(As a side note, such attacks might not have destroyed a leftist group in the exact same position. The Tea Party did not offer a transcendent ideology as the Left always offers its acolytes, which makes it harder to survive attacks. For the most part, conservatives just want to live their lives, not obtain meaning from politics, one reason that leftists always pursue their enemies in a way foreign to conservatives—you only have to look at how Communists were never punished for their heinous crimes after the fall of Communism, but any authoritarian rightist government that falls has its members, none of whom committed any crime equivalent to Communism’s, pursued to the ends of the earth.)
So there are the insight and the lesson. But I have a solution to the problem of the Ruling Class. What is the goal of any solution? To erode their power. We now realize that their power and importance revolves around, and grows in sympathetic symbiosis with, the government. We have seen we can’t vote them out of power or cut government as such. But what if we simply made it less appealing to be involved with government, changing nothing else?
As I suggested in my review of "What Washington Gets Wrong," rustication is the answer. In brief, no element of the federal government other than the President and a core staff, Congress and a skeleton staff, and the Supreme Court, should be allowed to have its headquarters located, or more than two percent of its staff and contractors combined, live or work within three hundred miles of Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. Instead, each element of government should be scattered in numerous small satellite offices randomly and evenly geographically distributed around the country, including Alaska and Guam, with only a small percentage in any metropolitan area with more than, say, 250,000 people, and the majority in metropolitan areas of less than 50,000 people. Office space should be mostly “C” grade, with a fraction of “B” grade. Any existing office buildings owned by the government should be sold immediately. In these days of electronic communication, there is no downside to efficiency as a result—in fact, efficiency should go up, as the Ruling Class is able to focus on work, not on the distractions that the Capitol of Panem offers. They will actually get a raise, because their pay will be worth more in places with a lower cost of living. Much more could be developed along these lines, such as placing similar restrictions on lobbyists and businesses that receive government dollars; placing a ten- or fifteen-year absolute bar on being employed, directly or indirectly, in any capacity with government, after leaving government employ; and making it a condition of employment that all children of the government employee attend public schools. But you get the idea—the Ruling Class will have less reason to be involved with government, and they will start to get real jobs.
In the current environment (which I expect to change, but that is another discussion), this is much less of a pipe dream than would be, say, a reactionary reworking of the entire government. In fact, you might be able to get a new political party formed behind this program. Most people would regard this as a common sense reform, and a legitimate and long overdue reaction to overweening government dominance. Critically, they would not see it as a threat to their own turn at the trough. Certainly, the Ruling Class, that is to say, millions of those whose only role and purpose in their careers and lives comes from leeching off the taxpayers, would howl. That would include the leaders of both the Democrats and Republicans. They wouldn’t have any good arguments, though. Nobody is getting hurt in the least. Nobody would even lose his job. Members of the Ruling Class who didn’t want to move could simply find private sector jobs, anywhere they wanted. Government spending, as far as delivery of services, would not decline at all. The poorer areas of the country would benefit as federal dollars were spent on them. No longer would counties contiguous to Washington, D.C. constitute seven of the top ten richest counties in America—they would quickly become among the poorest, which would be all to the good, especially since we could skip repairing the Metro. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this would be a constitutional amendment, to ensure no future backsliding, and I think that with the right leadership this might be possible, though maybe only through the Article V convention method. And once underway, this program would build on itself, since as the Ruling Class’s power eroded, it would become easier to erode further.
This wouldn’t restore virtue to America. Codevilla motions at the heart of the matter when he says, in passing, “resistance to that rule [of the Ruling Class] . . . must deal with secularism’s intellectual and moral core. This lies beyond the boundaries of politics, as the term is commonly understood.” True enough, but we can get the party started, and with a little bit of luck, it’ll turn into the kind of party that improves the nation as a whole. You’re welcome.
September 6, 2016
Every American should read this brief book, especially in this election year!
The essential text is just 87 pages (brief paperback pages at that); and the remaining 58pages are bibliography plus the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of America.
Angelo Codevilla explains how the "ruling class" views the "country class" average American. While the Ruling Class believe they are "the best and brightest, they believe the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional" (p.15). The Ruling Class sense of "intellectual and social superiority over the common herd" (p.22) diminish their respect for the laws that impede their visions of a better world. "It has become conventional wisdom among our Ruling Class that they may transcend the Constitution while pretending allegiance to it" (p.42).
I think Codevilla's analysis explains a lot about the 2016 election year--the unfathonable immunity from prosecution of the power elites; and the working class support for Donald Trump. Despite his wealth, the builder Donald Trump is more aligned with the working class than with the intellectual ruling class. How much of this is "populism," and how much of it is "constitutionalism"? A very similar "populist" revolt in Britain is the "Brexit" movement to leave the EU and return to home rule. It is "the country class" reasserting the sovereignty of the people in opposition to the no-borders bureaucracy of the "ruling class."
Angelo Codevilla makes this all so clear with examples from history and from recent events of our day. I urge you to get a copy, read it, and share it!!
The essential text is just 87 pages (brief paperback pages at that); and the remaining 58pages are bibliography plus the Declaration of Independence and Constitution of America.
Angelo Codevilla explains how the "ruling class" views the "country class" average American. While the Ruling Class believe they are "the best and brightest, they believe the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional" (p.15). The Ruling Class sense of "intellectual and social superiority over the common herd" (p.22) diminish their respect for the laws that impede their visions of a better world. "It has become conventional wisdom among our Ruling Class that they may transcend the Constitution while pretending allegiance to it" (p.42).
I think Codevilla's analysis explains a lot about the 2016 election year--the unfathonable immunity from prosecution of the power elites; and the working class support for Donald Trump. Despite his wealth, the builder Donald Trump is more aligned with the working class than with the intellectual ruling class. How much of this is "populism," and how much of it is "constitutionalism"? A very similar "populist" revolt in Britain is the "Brexit" movement to leave the EU and return to home rule. It is "the country class" reasserting the sovereignty of the people in opposition to the no-borders bureaucracy of the "ruling class."
Angelo Codevilla makes this all so clear with examples from history and from recent events of our day. I urge you to get a copy, read it, and share it!!
April 14, 2015
This book nails it. The problem in Washington isn't a Democrat problem or Republican problem, it is a Ruling Class problem. The Ruling Class, as the author so ably defines them, are detached from the lives of the average American, the Country Class. They rule from on high.
"The Ruling Class is keener to reform the American peoples' family and spiritual lives than their economic and civic ones."
The baker forced to bake cakes for a wedding, anyone?
As government burrows further and further into the lives of the people it will awaken the Country Class, we can see this happening in American right now. People are tired of being told how to live. But, as Codevilla writes, "Does the Country Class really want to rule itself, or is it just whining for milder taskmasters?" We've seen this before, from the Declaration of Independence, "...all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." Do we have the courage, as the Founders did?
"The County Class' greatest difficulty will be to enable a revolution to take place without imposing it."
Are we up to the task?
"The Ruling Class is keener to reform the American peoples' family and spiritual lives than their economic and civic ones."
The baker forced to bake cakes for a wedding, anyone?
As government burrows further and further into the lives of the people it will awaken the Country Class, we can see this happening in American right now. People are tired of being told how to live. But, as Codevilla writes, "Does the Country Class really want to rule itself, or is it just whining for milder taskmasters?" We've seen this before, from the Declaration of Independence, "...all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed." Do we have the courage, as the Founders did?
"The County Class' greatest difficulty will be to enable a revolution to take place without imposing it."
Are we up to the task?
October 16, 2010
I really appreciated this. It explains an awful lot. I read the original article in The American Spectator, then order the expanded version in the book form, and read it again. Great stuff. If you want to understand the roiled events of the next several years, get and master this book.
July 11, 2023
A perceptive analysis of the division of America into two classes, rulers and rules, or what Codevilla calls the Ruling Class and the Country Class. This book, in its original form as an article, garnered Codevilla measure of prestige for having predicted that the Country Class, devoid of representation by reason of the Republican Party's general fecklessness, would reform the Republicans, which seemed to happen in 2016 with the nomination and then election of Donald Trump. Codevilla's prescience goes beyond this event, and his analysis suggests that not only is the Country Class is not finished upending American politics, but that the rule of the Ruling Class is unsustainable.
Of particular interest is Codevilla's exploration of how the Country Class, the normal folks who just want to be left alone to practice self-government, might reassert their right to make their own decisions. Codevilla notes that voting every two years (and, I might add, trying to "own the libs" on social media) is easy, but what will be the ultimate test of the Country Class' commitment to self-government will be its willingness to reassume the actual responsibilities of governing, meaning a willingness to serve on school boards, city councils, and other duties of self-rule that previous generations performed. This is one of the questions not yet answered, and it seems that Codevilla wasn't sure which way things would go. Here's to the hope that the Country Class is up for more than just complaining about the Ruling Class - that they're ready to rule themselves.
Of particular interest is Codevilla's exploration of how the Country Class, the normal folks who just want to be left alone to practice self-government, might reassert their right to make their own decisions. Codevilla notes that voting every two years (and, I might add, trying to "own the libs" on social media) is easy, but what will be the ultimate test of the Country Class' commitment to self-government will be its willingness to reassume the actual responsibilities of governing, meaning a willingness to serve on school boards, city councils, and other duties of self-rule that previous generations performed. This is one of the questions not yet answered, and it seems that Codevilla wasn't sure which way things would go. Here's to the hope that the Country Class is up for more than just complaining about the Ruling Class - that they're ready to rule themselves.
February 9, 2014
Utah (a conservative state) spends only $5257 per pupil and produce America's highest SAT scores, while the states that spend the most produce the lowest ... the District of Columbia spends three times as much (per pupil) as Utah and gets .07 SAT point per dollar. Utah gets 2.1 SAT points.
I read Codevilla's re-edition last year of his wonderful already classic "The character of nations", and I had to follow up with him. Simply stated: He is the wisest man in America, and the second best writer only after Thomas Sowell.
This is a small essay that describes how America has come to be so different from what the Founding Fathers meant it to be. A self-governed people, not another aristocracy. It describes the crony bureaucracy that works for both sides of the system: a parasitic population that feeds on this Leviathan government. Reading the book and seeing the picture clearly is all one thing. There's hope, though. If not in America, where else. Oh, watch out for phony conservatives who claim to be with the people but thrive as part of the Leviathan. And stay close to the civic society, our modern-day David against Goliath. God save America!
I read Codevilla's re-edition last year of his wonderful already classic "The character of nations", and I had to follow up with him. Simply stated: He is the wisest man in America, and the second best writer only after Thomas Sowell.
This is a small essay that describes how America has come to be so different from what the Founding Fathers meant it to be. A self-governed people, not another aristocracy. It describes the crony bureaucracy that works for both sides of the system: a parasitic population that feeds on this Leviathan government. Reading the book and seeing the picture clearly is all one thing. There's hope, though. If not in America, where else. Oh, watch out for phony conservatives who claim to be with the people but thrive as part of the Leviathan. And stay close to the civic society, our modern-day David against Goliath. God save America!
March 20, 2013
If this short piece doesn't make you look askance at anyone with the power of government behind them, then there is something wrong with you. Spend 99 cents on it for you e-reader, spend a few hours reading it, and become enraged at the political class and how they're tentacles have reached into practically every corner of American life. My suggestion is to read this while smoking a cigar and drinking the beverage of your choice from a Big Gulp, while sitting next to a lamp lighted by an incandescent light bulb.
Read
November 24, 2010Needs to be read; provides remarkable insights into what has become the American nobility and its sycophants.
November 20, 2020
The actual text of this book is only 87 pages, so you really DO have time to read it! ...It would be so worth your investment! Why? ... because it will reward you with the sweet gift of CLARITY. Who does not feel disoriented and disheartened at the current state of affairs?! To read Codevilla is to feel restored to reality. Now that is worth a couple hours turning pages!
Codevilla augments his 87 pages with the texts of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. We the People must assert the governing framework of these brief documents; because, as Codevilla observes, "it has become conventional wisdom among our Ruling Class that they may transcend the Constitution while pretending allegiance to it" (p.42).
When I read the Trent Lott quote on p.74: "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them;" I thought of Junior Senator Marco Rubio's career disaster in joining "the gang of 8" amnesty bill. I hope Rubio will recognize how he was played, and double down on Constitutional principles in a future leadership career. He should read this book!!
It is interesting in this day of the Trump revolution that in this 2010 book, Codevilla predicted a constituent rebellion among Republican voters is inevitable. He warns the Ruling Class that run the Republican party "will have a rude awakening" (p.75) if they continue to govern like Liberal Democrats. Codevilla closes his text with a search through history for how a Constitutional reformation could be successful. If he had a recommendation, I didn't find it! I take his precautions about what would NOT work in the long run. But I wish he had take a few more pages to explore one of the books in his bibliography: "The Roots of American Order" by Russell Kirk (1974). He summarizes: "Kirk argues that American Order is grounded in certain permanent institutions, beliefs, and characteristics of Americans: that TO RESTORE LIBERTY to its rightful place in society, we must STRENGTHEN THE FOUNDATIONS on which it is built: the habits of heart and mind that make (or "made"/csm) America exceptional" (p.142).
Codevilla augments his 87 pages with the texts of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. We the People must assert the governing framework of these brief documents; because, as Codevilla observes, "it has become conventional wisdom among our Ruling Class that they may transcend the Constitution while pretending allegiance to it" (p.42).
When I read the Trent Lott quote on p.74: "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them;" I thought of Junior Senator Marco Rubio's career disaster in joining "the gang of 8" amnesty bill. I hope Rubio will recognize how he was played, and double down on Constitutional principles in a future leadership career. He should read this book!!
It is interesting in this day of the Trump revolution that in this 2010 book, Codevilla predicted a constituent rebellion among Republican voters is inevitable. He warns the Ruling Class that run the Republican party "will have a rude awakening" (p.75) if they continue to govern like Liberal Democrats. Codevilla closes his text with a search through history for how a Constitutional reformation could be successful. If he had a recommendation, I didn't find it! I take his precautions about what would NOT work in the long run. But I wish he had take a few more pages to explore one of the books in his bibliography: "The Roots of American Order" by Russell Kirk (1974). He summarizes: "Kirk argues that American Order is grounded in certain permanent institutions, beliefs, and characteristics of Americans: that TO RESTORE LIBERTY to its rightful place in society, we must STRENGTHEN THE FOUNDATIONS on which it is built: the habits of heart and mind that make (or "made"/csm) America exceptional" (p.142).
June 4, 2016
While shopping around in the 305s at work, I mistakenly grabbed a book that was written for tea partiers. I was shocked when I opened it up and read that the democrats are the ruling class. I thought that it would be an educational experience, so I committed to reading it. Terms like climate change are always found within quotation marks, it is suggested that democrats confuse their opinions with science, and rather than praying to God (as most Americans do), they pray to themselves as saviors of the planet and as shapers of mankind.
Apparently, Darwinism corrupted Northerners and Southerners equally, leading them to believe that the highly evolved, educated class could improve "lower beings" as they pleased, kicking off a social reformation movement. It was also suggested that Lincoln taught us the lesson that "trifling with the constitution for the most heartfelt of motives destroys its protections for all."
This was, um, a fascinating read. *shudders*
Apparently, Darwinism corrupted Northerners and Southerners equally, leading them to believe that the highly evolved, educated class could improve "lower beings" as they pleased, kicking off a social reformation movement. It was also suggested that Lincoln taught us the lesson that "trifling with the constitution for the most heartfelt of motives destroys its protections for all."
This was, um, a fascinating read. *shudders*
August 19, 2015
Concise, elucidating, brilliant.
The Ruling Class is a great book, easy to read, and one of the handful I would eagerly recommend to anyone looking to understand what's really going on beyond the specific issues & headlines. As is so often the case, the truth is easily discerned once all of the detritus, misdirection, and distractions are cleared out of the way, and Codevilla has done an artful job of clearly presenting what's behind all of the modern American political chaos.
This book is a quick read chock full of profound depth. It points the finger at the heart of the problem in American politics - to wit, the cool kids' table - and does a fantastic job of prescribing a remedy.
The Ruling Class is a great book, easy to read, and one of the handful I would eagerly recommend to anyone looking to understand what's really going on beyond the specific issues & headlines. As is so often the case, the truth is easily discerned once all of the detritus, misdirection, and distractions are cleared out of the way, and Codevilla has done an artful job of clearly presenting what's behind all of the modern American political chaos.
This book is a quick read chock full of profound depth. It points the finger at the heart of the problem in American politics - to wit, the cool kids' table - and does a fantastic job of prescribing a remedy.
February 4, 2013
This book highlights a key issue in American politics today, and for that reason has something worth reading--namely unbalanced power.
I would have liked to see specific solutions to the outlined problems. Codevilla talks about what people would need to do and what issues potential solutions would need to address in order to work towards remediation, but he doesn't propose how readers can accomplish those actions themselves. Although it may not be within the scope or intent of the book, a powerful part of raising awareness is bringing newly-aware readers towards change--otherwise their influence will amount to static political talk and nothing more.
I would have liked to see specific solutions to the outlined problems. Codevilla talks about what people would need to do and what issues potential solutions would need to address in order to work towards remediation, but he doesn't propose how readers can accomplish those actions themselves. Although it may not be within the scope or intent of the book, a powerful part of raising awareness is bringing newly-aware readers towards change--otherwise their influence will amount to static political talk and nothing more.
June 25, 2013
This short book that should have been longer and more descriptive. But for its length it makes the case that modern American politics is not simply between Democrats and Republicans, but a more difficult battle between the Ruling Class and Country Class. The Ruling Class sees an ever growing Government as the future, while the Country Class has faith in God, family, and the Constitution. It can be hard for some to grasp that Ruling Class Republicans despise primaries, and would rather lose a general election if a Ruling Class Republican loses the primary to a Country Class challenger. I have seen that very thing happen in several US Senate races.
March 11, 2017
Great book must read for everyone how simply no longer knows what the difference is between us and them.
The Democrats are currently trying to bring about the downfall of a democratically elected President. Their willing dupes simply do not know that this is the start of the start of the end of their freedoms and their democracy at the hands of the elites who they believe are all knowing and will take care of them for the rest of their lives.
The Democrats are currently trying to bring about the downfall of a democratically elected President. Their willing dupes simply do not know that this is the start of the start of the end of their freedoms and their democracy at the hands of the elites who they believe are all knowing and will take care of them for the rest of their lives.
July 16, 2023
As someone who works in Manhattan and who lives on Connecticut's Gold Coast, I had, even before reading this book, thought the best word to describe the local culture is Mandarin. Since this is something I do not quite fit into, this book quickly drew my attention when I saw it mentioned, and it immediately resonated with me upon reading.
The book's greatest strength is that it powerfully captures the repulsion that "The Ruling Class" and their arrogance generates in the rest of the nation. Although written in 2010, starting from this observation, it was amazingly prescient in correctly anticipating the rise of the phenomenon of Trumpism. Unfortunately, the book's weakness is substantial: it is a polemic rather than a rigorous analysis of class antagonism in the United States.
The Book's Central Thesis
The book's central thesis is that America has devolved into two classes: An arrogant "Ruling Class" who believes it is their birthright to control everything that happens in the country and a "Country Class" who just wants to live their lives and be left alone by the government.
As exemplified by this excerpt:
Codevilla believes the Ruling Class has expanded its power to control nearly everything. At the same time, the Country Class, who is reluctant to take an interest in politics, has put up little effective resistance. Codevilla argues that the Democratic party represents the Ruling Class well but that the Republican party does not represent the Country Class well. Indeed, Codevilla elaborates that Republicans are merely "junior partners" who seek to be members of the Ruling Class themselves one day.
Codevilla thus argues that the situation is unsustainable and the emergence of a third party or, at least, a complete transformation of the Republican Party is inevitable.
Key Themes
A critical theme that Codevilla argues from cover to cover is that the fundamental problem with the Ruling Class is its arrogance. They feel that they ought to control everything because they are intellectually and morally superior to the Country Class, who are merely violent, racist, simpletons incapable of reason on any even mildly complex issue, and who are driven solely by irrational, generally religious (i.e., superstitious) fears and anxieties regarding change. As Codevilla puts it:
Codevllia argues that the Ruling Class, far from having great power of intellect, are mere conformists. What they learn in school is not actual knowledge but "the patterns of belief and behavior that make one fit to circulate among those already established in the ruling class." Codevllia further argues that with its arrogance, the Ruling Class has insulted the rest of the country to the point of irrevocably losing its trust.
The Book's Weaknesses
I believe the book's central thesis and key themes are essentially correct. However, I found several problems with the presentation. One of the most glaring is the lack of citations. This makes it hard to check some rather hard-to-believe but possibly valid claims.
Along similar lines, the author makes it seem as though The Country Class, which he claims comprises 2/3 of the country, is opposed to abortion. This, of course, is simplistic. Since about 80% of the country takes some intermediate position on abortion, that is, neither no abortions nor full access to abortion at any time for any reason, by dropping the subtleties, you could disingenuously argue either way: they support abortion! No, they oppose it! In general, Codevilla is not inclined to get into much nuance in this book.
Another instance of avoiding nuance is further demonstrated in his claim that Goldman Sachs effectively received an indirect bailout from the government that the Ruling Class supported but which Country Class opposed when AIG was "saved" during the Global Financial Crisis. Goldman Sachs, however, thought they had adequate risk control to survive an AIG collapse. If Codevilla pursued the argument, he would have to claim that if AIG collapsed, it would have taken the whole financial system with it. This is almost undoubtedly true, but it would undermine his argument that the Ruling Class never gave a clear argument for the bailouts.
Finally, in focusing so intently on the perspective of the Country Class, Codevilla neglects the rationale and historical arguments of the Ruling Class. This omission is a considerable weakness. While Codevilla effectively critiques the arrogance and insularity of the elite, he fails to delve into why they believe the country cannot run on its own with minimal government intervention. Although there are many, one example that the Ruling Class may feel gives a historical sense of the need for government regulation is the slow adoption of automobile safety standards. Codevilla should attempt to at least address a few of the most common arguments for government regulation.
Conclusion
I found the book to be worth reading. It helped solidify some of the things I instinctively feel as a Country Class member who lives near a Ground Zero of the Ruling Class. The book's themes of the Ruling Class's simultaneous incompetence and arrogance are quite consistent with Thomas Sowell's in Intellectuals and Society. The book is also quite prescient in its predictions and provides much food for thought regarding the country's present state. In particular, and consistent with my reading of Robert Draper's Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind, it seems likely that the Country Class is not done after Trump. After digesting the two books' perspectives, I must, sadly, conclude that the insatiable appetite for the most outlandish conspiracy theories has yet to be filled, as the conspiracy theories are undoubtedly a manifestation of the underlying class antagonism.
Despite all the strengths, the book is lacking in rigor. You will either agree based on intuition or not be convinced. Finally, the prescriptions provided to remedy the situation are wanting. It is true that, as Machiavelli argued, we must either learn the art of politics or be subject to the whims of those not reluctant to learn them, but beyond that, the book lacks good realistic suggestions. After a weak concluding chapter, it merely ends with a copy of the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution included. The rest, I suppose, is left as an exercise for the reader...
The book's greatest strength is that it powerfully captures the repulsion that "The Ruling Class" and their arrogance generates in the rest of the nation. Although written in 2010, starting from this observation, it was amazingly prescient in correctly anticipating the rise of the phenomenon of Trumpism. Unfortunately, the book's weakness is substantial: it is a polemic rather than a rigorous analysis of class antagonism in the United States.
The Book's Central Thesis
The book's central thesis is that America has devolved into two classes: An arrogant "Ruling Class" who believes it is their birthright to control everything that happens in the country and a "Country Class" who just wants to live their lives and be left alone by the government.
As exemplified by this excerpt:
The other class' position is analogous to that of the frog that awoke to the fact that it was being slow-boiled only when getting out of the pan would require perhaps more strength and judgment than it had left.
Codevilla believes the Ruling Class has expanded its power to control nearly everything. At the same time, the Country Class, who is reluctant to take an interest in politics, has put up little effective resistance. Codevilla argues that the Democratic party represents the Ruling Class well but that the Republican party does not represent the Country Class well. Indeed, Codevilla elaborates that Republicans are merely "junior partners" who seek to be members of the Ruling Class themselves one day.
Codevilla thus argues that the situation is unsustainable and the emergence of a third party or, at least, a complete transformation of the Republican Party is inevitable.
Key Themes
A critical theme that Codevilla argues from cover to cover is that the fundamental problem with the Ruling Class is its arrogance. They feel that they ought to control everything because they are intellectually and morally superior to the Country Class, who are merely violent, racist, simpletons incapable of reason on any even mildly complex issue, and who are driven solely by irrational, generally religious (i.e., superstitious) fears and anxieties regarding change. As Codevilla puts it:
Such people can no more believe that a Christian might be their intellectual and moral equal than white Southerners of the Jim Crow era could think the same of Negroes
Codevllia argues that the Ruling Class, far from having great power of intellect, are mere conformists. What they learn in school is not actual knowledge but "the patterns of belief and behavior that make one fit to circulate among those already established in the ruling class." Codevllia further argues that with its arrogance, the Ruling Class has insulted the rest of the country to the point of irrevocably losing its trust.
The Book's Weaknesses
I believe the book's central thesis and key themes are essentially correct. However, I found several problems with the presentation. One of the most glaring is the lack of citations. This makes it hard to check some rather hard-to-believe but possibly valid claims.
Along similar lines, the author makes it seem as though The Country Class, which he claims comprises 2/3 of the country, is opposed to abortion. This, of course, is simplistic. Since about 80% of the country takes some intermediate position on abortion, that is, neither no abortions nor full access to abortion at any time for any reason, by dropping the subtleties, you could disingenuously argue either way: they support abortion! No, they oppose it! In general, Codevilla is not inclined to get into much nuance in this book.
Another instance of avoiding nuance is further demonstrated in his claim that Goldman Sachs effectively received an indirect bailout from the government that the Ruling Class supported but which Country Class opposed when AIG was "saved" during the Global Financial Crisis. Goldman Sachs, however, thought they had adequate risk control to survive an AIG collapse. If Codevilla pursued the argument, he would have to claim that if AIG collapsed, it would have taken the whole financial system with it. This is almost undoubtedly true, but it would undermine his argument that the Ruling Class never gave a clear argument for the bailouts.
Finally, in focusing so intently on the perspective of the Country Class, Codevilla neglects the rationale and historical arguments of the Ruling Class. This omission is a considerable weakness. While Codevilla effectively critiques the arrogance and insularity of the elite, he fails to delve into why they believe the country cannot run on its own with minimal government intervention. Although there are many, one example that the Ruling Class may feel gives a historical sense of the need for government regulation is the slow adoption of automobile safety standards. Codevilla should attempt to at least address a few of the most common arguments for government regulation.
Conclusion
I found the book to be worth reading. It helped solidify some of the things I instinctively feel as a Country Class member who lives near a Ground Zero of the Ruling Class. The book's themes of the Ruling Class's simultaneous incompetence and arrogance are quite consistent with Thomas Sowell's in Intellectuals and Society. The book is also quite prescient in its predictions and provides much food for thought regarding the country's present state. In particular, and consistent with my reading of Robert Draper's Weapons of Mass Delusion: When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind, it seems likely that the Country Class is not done after Trump. After digesting the two books' perspectives, I must, sadly, conclude that the insatiable appetite for the most outlandish conspiracy theories has yet to be filled, as the conspiracy theories are undoubtedly a manifestation of the underlying class antagonism.
Despite all the strengths, the book is lacking in rigor. You will either agree based on intuition or not be convinced. Finally, the prescriptions provided to remedy the situation are wanting. It is true that, as Machiavelli argued, we must either learn the art of politics or be subject to the whims of those not reluctant to learn them, but beyond that, the book lacks good realistic suggestions. After a weak concluding chapter, it merely ends with a copy of the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution included. The rest, I suppose, is left as an exercise for the reader...
August 2, 2022
This is an expansion on Prof. Codevilla's (PBUH) essay "The Ruling Class - and the Perils of Revolution" first published in American Spectator in the July-August edition. This book came out in September of that year.
One of the things I found most prescient in Codevilla's analysis was his prediction of a candidate like Donald J. Trump. Codevilla wrote that, while the Democratic Party enjoys a reasonable amount of support from its constituency, the majority of the rest of us have to hold our noses and vote Republican out of protest, because the Republicans are just Democrats-lite. As he said in an interview, "(T)he Democrats (are) the senior partners in the ruling class. The Republicans are the junior partners. The reason being that the American ruling class was built by or under the Democratic Party. First, under Woodrow Wilson and then later under Franklin Roosevelt. It was a ruling class that prized above all its intellectual superiority over the ruled. And that saw itself as the natural carriers of scientific knowledge, as the class that was naturally best able to run society and was therefore entitled to run society. The Republican members of the ruling class aspire to that sort of intellectual status or reputation. And they have shared a taste of this ruling class. But they are not part of the same party, and as such, are constantly trying to get closer to the senior partners. As the junior members of the ruling class, they are not nearly as tied to government as the Democrats are. And therefore, their elite prerogatives are not safe."
The electorate recognizes this, and he observed, "...some two-thirds of Americans - a few Democratic voters, most Republican voters, and all Independents - lack a vehicle in electoral politics. Sooner or later, well or badly, that majority's demand for representation will be filled."
And now we know what happens when we get uppity and elect someone the Ruling Party cannot control.
One of the things I found most prescient in Codevilla's analysis was his prediction of a candidate like Donald J. Trump. Codevilla wrote that, while the Democratic Party enjoys a reasonable amount of support from its constituency, the majority of the rest of us have to hold our noses and vote Republican out of protest, because the Republicans are just Democrats-lite. As he said in an interview, "(T)he Democrats (are) the senior partners in the ruling class. The Republicans are the junior partners. The reason being that the American ruling class was built by or under the Democratic Party. First, under Woodrow Wilson and then later under Franklin Roosevelt. It was a ruling class that prized above all its intellectual superiority over the ruled. And that saw itself as the natural carriers of scientific knowledge, as the class that was naturally best able to run society and was therefore entitled to run society. The Republican members of the ruling class aspire to that sort of intellectual status or reputation. And they have shared a taste of this ruling class. But they are not part of the same party, and as such, are constantly trying to get closer to the senior partners. As the junior members of the ruling class, they are not nearly as tied to government as the Democrats are. And therefore, their elite prerogatives are not safe."
The electorate recognizes this, and he observed, "...some two-thirds of Americans - a few Democratic voters, most Republican voters, and all Independents - lack a vehicle in electoral politics. Sooner or later, well or badly, that majority's demand for representation will be filled."
And now we know what happens when we get uppity and elect someone the Ruling Party cannot control.
March 1, 2024
In 1941, James Burnham, an ex-Trotskyite, NYU philosopher, and future U.S. intelligence analyst, published “The Managerial Revolution,” a seminal book which argued that democratic control of business and government entities was ebbing, and a managerial class was effectively transforming itself into a ruling class. In “The Ruling Class,” Angelo M. Codevilla extends and updates Burnham’s thesis in a brief book that examines American governance in the 21st century.
A classicist and student of statecraft, the late Codevilla argues that the administrative state has become a virtual oligarchy which demands submission to the ends they seek. This ruling class openly disdains those they rule, and eschew accountability for their actions.
For Codevilla, America's republican self-government has been replaced by a ruling class, consisting of both Democrats and Republicans deeply steeped in progressive ideology. The administrators come to Washington to do good, and stay to do well.
It is Codevilla’s background as a classicist that explains his criticisms of the American security state, the attempt to cloak policy decisions behind the mantle of science, and his concern that the government has,in effect, disaggregated the American family. He suggests Americans need to start anew, and subscribe to a genuine federalism supportive of multiplicity and local mores. To Codevilla,it makes most sense for the ruled ” to assert their own freedom.” As the author notes, Aristotle, the first political scientist, believed that self-government meant “ruling and being ruled in turn,” not acquiescence to a transformative government of professionals.
A classicist and student of statecraft, the late Codevilla argues that the administrative state has become a virtual oligarchy which demands submission to the ends they seek. This ruling class openly disdains those they rule, and eschew accountability for their actions.
For Codevilla, America's republican self-government has been replaced by a ruling class, consisting of both Democrats and Republicans deeply steeped in progressive ideology. The administrators come to Washington to do good, and stay to do well.
It is Codevilla’s background as a classicist that explains his criticisms of the American security state, the attempt to cloak policy decisions behind the mantle of science, and his concern that the government has,in effect, disaggregated the American family. He suggests Americans need to start anew, and subscribe to a genuine federalism supportive of multiplicity and local mores. To Codevilla,it makes most sense for the ruled ” to assert their own freedom.” As the author notes, Aristotle, the first political scientist, believed that self-government meant “ruling and being ruled in turn,” not acquiescence to a transformative government of professionals.
Read
November 16, 2020This was a rambling, seemingly disjointed piece about how there is a "Ruling Class" of people who have taken over the governing of this country, who are somewhat disconnected from the concerns of ordinary Americans. Their groupthink crosses party lines, affecting Republicans and Democrats alike, and the bottom line is that they feel they know better how this country should be run than the folks in flyover country, the Country Class. It really seems like an opinion piece or blog post that someone told Codevilla should be expanded upon and made into a book.
I kept reading on through it, waiting for the prescription at the end, and found that the solution proposed is that the ordinary folks in the Country Class should participate more in the governing process, and "take back" their government, starting with local school boards, city and county governments, and so forth. The problem with that is that the folks who are busy working for a living, raising their children, and just trying to get by seldom have either the time or the inclination to join the political process by standing for election, and unless they are willing to compromise their principles and be corrupted by the big money, they'll never rise very far in government, in my opinion.
If you just want a rehash of how badly things are going, now that we've elected a crop of fools to our national government, go ahead and read this.
I kept reading on through it, waiting for the prescription at the end, and found that the solution proposed is that the ordinary folks in the Country Class should participate more in the governing process, and "take back" their government, starting with local school boards, city and county governments, and so forth. The problem with that is that the folks who are busy working for a living, raising their children, and just trying to get by seldom have either the time or the inclination to join the political process by standing for election, and unless they are willing to compromise their principles and be corrupted by the big money, they'll never rise very far in government, in my opinion.
If you just want a rehash of how badly things are going, now that we've elected a crop of fools to our national government, go ahead and read this.
December 26, 2020
The Ruling Class was one of the Tea Party Era's founding texts whether or not the average Tea Partier acknowledged it themselves. Unlike many of those books, this one has withstood the test of time. It looks beyond distractions of the passing scene to address those perennial questions of philosophy- Who rules who and why? What are the implications? What is to be done?
This book doesn't suffer from its brevity. Each question and concept is given enough room for the reader to consider and offers little to distract him.
In the end, this book proves a temperate and truly educated mind can see through time with more clarity than wild prognostication or emotive presentism. I'll be reading more Codevilla in the coming months.
This book doesn't suffer from its brevity. Each question and concept is given enough room for the reader to consider and offers little to distract him.
In the end, this book proves a temperate and truly educated mind can see through time with more clarity than wild prognostication or emotive presentism. I'll be reading more Codevilla in the coming months.
January 24, 2025
Not a bad book but nothing we haven't all read before. Those of US who believe we're in the process of being dominated and perhaps conquered by the "Ruling Class" (who think they've somehow been bred to lead US off a cliff) know it's easy to write the book pointing out the Problems (they're so numerous as to be obvious to anyone who bothers to look). But to finish a book with positive quotes and a copy of the US Constitution is no solution at all. And I notice this appears to be the last book by this author before he died in 2021. I don't know his circumstances but assume he moved within a small circle of elite country class people. Oh well. I'll keep looking for solutions.
April 20, 2022
"More timely than ever!," although it was written in 2012.
I would give it five stars, and would read it again tomorrow (my personal five-star criterion), but one star deduction for putting the Declaration and the Constitution in an appendix. Can't get the image of Mr. Olsen singing "Filler! Filler!" to the tune of "Thriller."
I would give it five stars, and would read it again tomorrow (my personal five-star criterion), but one star deduction for putting the Declaration and the Constitution in an appendix. Can't get the image of Mr. Olsen singing "Filler! Filler!" to the tune of "Thriller."
December 6, 2024
Written in 2010, the tragic events that made up the Biden years confirm Codevilla’s general argument and observations. Prescient and worth pondering. The ruling class has over-acted and the citizens have decided to fight back against corrupt bureaucrats and “liberals”, I.e., neo-Marxists.
June 3, 2017
Just not my cup of tea(party).
September 16, 2021
This is definitely red meat for conservatives; having said that, much of what Codevilla foresaw over a decade ago has come true. His prescience seems worth taking note of.
November 4, 2021
Interesting explanation of the divide in America. A fix is proposed, but it will be very bitter medicine for the majority of us…
May 22, 2025
A very interesting essay which lucidly analyses some socio-political aspects of our society still valid and necessary to understand the politics that reflect society itself. Smooth reading.
Read
June 12, 2025This gives me a lot of food for thought.
October 19, 2021
A short essay to which is appended the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Well worth the read. It's also nice to have the DOI and Constitution within easy reach on my Kindle.
October 26, 2022
Great book! For Americans that disagree with the way our government is run, this book puts into words what has been understood for decades. Codevilla gives a clear explanation to who is running the government and how it has been changed and subverted to a character that least resembles the great majority of Americans. He shows the history and gradual growth of a class of elites calling it the ruling class that control greater and greater the dialogue of culture and agenda. The country class consists of most of America which have an independent character.
December 17, 2022
The Ruling Class: How They Corrupted America and What We Can Do About It is a book by Angelo Codevilla, an American political scientist and commentator. The book was published in 2010 and it is a critique of what Codevilla calls "the ruling class," a term he uses to describe the political, cultural, and economic elite in the United States.
In The Ruling Class, Codevilla argues that the ruling class is out of touch with the rest of the country and that it has pursued policies that are not in the best interests of the American people. He also discusses the ways in which the ruling class has consolidated its power and how it has been able to shape public policy and opinion.
The Ruling Class is a provocative and controversial work that is of interest to students and scholars of political science, American politics, and the history of ideas. It provides a unique perspective on the relationship between the ruling class and the rest of American society and offers suggestions for how the ruling class can be held accountable for its actions.
GPT
In The Ruling Class, Codevilla argues that the ruling class is out of touch with the rest of the country and that it has pursued policies that are not in the best interests of the American people. He also discusses the ways in which the ruling class has consolidated its power and how it has been able to shape public policy and opinion.
The Ruling Class is a provocative and controversial work that is of interest to students and scholars of political science, American politics, and the history of ideas. It provides a unique perspective on the relationship between the ruling class and the rest of American society and offers suggestions for how the ruling class can be held accountable for its actions.
GPT
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