QOTD

Thomas Frank on pretty much the problem with American politics right now:

One of the things about a meritocracy, and this is a line I repeat many times in the book, there’s no solidarity in a meritocracy. The guys at the top of the profession have very little sympathy for the people at the bottom. When one of their colleagues gets fired, they don’t go out on strike. They don’t do that. This comes from personal experience. When academic labor force is becoming adjunctified, Uber-ized, whatever you want to call it, there’s no real protest from on high, from the leaders of academia. Here and there, yes people are very sympathetic and they feel bad about it but there’s no organized counter-effort. There’s no solidarity in this group, but there is this amazing deference between the people at the top.

Frank is talking about what we at the Yellow Blog have been referring to as the "Yuppie Left" for over a decade.  They're pretty much Mitch Landrieu's core constituency and they're the people most responsible for the exploding inequality and gentrification of post-Katrina New Orleans.  Knock over all the affordable housing for all they care. Their property values are up.