Looking up something in the dictionary, I stumbled across the intriguing term "limousine liberal", which is supposed to refers to one who loves to help underprivileged people and doesn't really understand their lives.
Has anybody else heard of this term? What do you think of it?
Just thought it would be interesting to hear what others have to say about it.
Yes, it's a well-known term. But unless one is really into politics it may be unfamiliar.
A limousine liberal, also called a country club liberal, is not just one who doesn't understand the poor. It refers to those liberals--or to liberals in general as a characterization of political liberalism--who advocate one thing for the average person but do something else themselves, generally because they can afford to. That's where the rich-poor reference enters in.
For example, they say they want the public schools to be improved, desegregated, etc. and teach whatever they think should be pushed (sex ed, evolution, etc.). They oppose vouchers for your kids to afford a different school, but do their own children attend public schools? Not on your life!
Jesse Jackson's kids didn't. Limousine liberals send theirs to private academies that are free from the problems that the average family complains about with public education.
They are for rezoning in your neighborhood since commercialism is progress, but they live in the exclusive suburbs where there is no possibility of that. You are told that we need to drive a subcompact or hybrid, but they drive Hummers and Jags to their meetings where they crusade for increased gasoline economy.
Al Gore and John Edwards want everything done to reduce wasting the environment's resources, but they both live in mansions that have 15 times the square footage (which must be heated and cooled) than the average person's home.
Limousine liberals are all for PETA and vegetarianism and cloth coats, but there is no place where you'll find more fur coats than at a Democratic Party convention.
You get the idea. They are quick to tell everyone else what they have to do, so long as it doesn't apply to the limousine liberal personally.