Elites in America

This is Joseph. This article got me thinking about the idea of elites. Because I am actually in agreement with one major thread here, which is that the focus in American life has been on intra-state competition and not inter-state competition. This shift in focus to internal competition has often gone poorly for states. Stalin weakened Russia versus the Nazi's by seeking internal purity. Byzantium lost to the Ottomans because they couldn't overcome internal strife. It is generally not a good state of affairs.But I worry that we've move to an era where this good sense has been lost. For example, what national interest has the trade war with Canada served? Do any of the proponents actually think that it improves matters to put crushing tariffs on a neighboring country? Has anybody held this position prior to 2017 and what would have changed about the fundamentals in 2017? What is very much true is that everybody can identify elites that are acting poorly, at least from their point of…