[kitkat]

***
"They think their views are civilized and reasonable and moderate and mainstream because ‘all my friends think that way about it.’***

An excellent point. The same has been said about the Hollywood "elites." (Who started calling them "elites" anyway?) They are so insulated against what the average American thinks that they believe anyone who disagrees with them is provincial. Actually, they're the provincial ones because they are practically an incestuous part of society.

[HIDEK6]

Who started calling them "elites" anyway?

A case can be made that the way the media elites use the term (as in the elite republican guard), "elite" is either a perjorative term or a sarcastic one.