Robert Reich calls ‘them’ Regressives, we call them neofeudalists, plutonomists or neoliberals .. His points, about the significance of the US presidential election, are made more overt by Will Hutton in the Observer:
The American election is really a battle for the future of capitalism –
‘Mitt Romney embodies a system dominated by financial engineering that uses companies as casino chips.’
This battle is pertinent for the UK, because we already have many of the worst aspects of the US system… and the plans of the coalition lead inevitably towards further americanisation.
THE REAL BATTLE IN 2012 AND BEYOND Professor Robert Reich WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2012
It’s not merely Republicans versus Democrats, or conservatives versus liberals. The larger battle is between regressives and progressives.
Regressives want to take this nation backward — to before Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Medicare; before civil rights and voting rights; before regulations designed to protect the environment, workers, consumers, and investors. They want to sabotage much of what this nation has achieved over the last century. And they’re out to do it by making the rich far richer, turning Americans against one another in competition for a smaller and smaller slice of the pie, substituting private morality for public morality, and opening the floodgates to big money in politics.
Progressives are determined to take this nation forward — toward equal opportunity, tolerance and openness, adequate protection against corporate and Wall Street abuses, and an economy and democracy that are working for all of us.
The upcoming election is critical but it’s not the end of this contest. It will go on for years. It will require that you understand what’s at stake. And that you energize, mobilize, and organize others.
Think Left 
This “It’s not merely Republicans versus Democrats, or conservatives versus liberals. The larger battle is between regressives and progressives.” reminded me of something… this;”There is only one war, and it’s not the rich against the poor, the blacks against the whites, the Federation against the Borg, or the Democrats versus the Republicans. It’s those of us who aren’t complete idiots against those of us who are.”, which I think says it better 🙂
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Wasn’t there some research correlating relative ‘idiocy’ and political belief? IMO the battle results from the dominance of personality disorders in the power elite. Specifically, ‘narcissism’ is characterised by a sense of entitlement and an absence of empathy… which seems to fit the bill.
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Where the elites are concerned there’s probably a fair bit of inbreeding too. Then there’s generation loss – the original Nate Rothschild was a very clever guy (allthough I supect he was deeply mentally ill too) but the contempary version doesn’t seem up to much. Same with Osborne and Cameron. Their dads went out in the world and did things, made some money, but their two sons have achieved precisely nothing in their own account.
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You may be right but I would focus on the disturbance of attachment in the early years of childhood… compounded by small boys prematurely leaving the family by being sent to boarding school. However, there are plenty of narcissists who have their origins in less privileged backgrounds.
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