thumb|alt=Photo of limousine on street in front of dusk cityscape|The term references [[limousines as a symbol of affluence.]]

Limousine liberal is a pejorative term originating in the United States to describe affluent individuals who publicly champion liberal or progressive policies aimed at addressing inequality and social issues (such as expansive welfare programs, strict environmental regulations, or permissive criminal justice reforms) while their substantial wealth and insulated lifestyles exempt them from bearing the primary costs or disruptions these policies impose on lower-income or working-class populations. Related terms include "latte liberal", "liberal elite", "Brahmin Left", "champagne socialist", "silver-spoon socialist", "Mercedes Marxist", "Gangnam leftist", and "Rednobility".

Formation and early use

Procaccino campaign

Democratic New York City mayoral hopeful Mario Procaccino coined the term "limousine liberal" to characterize incumbent mayor John Lindsay and his wealthy Manhattan backers during a heated 1969campaign. Historian David Callahan says that Procaccino:

It was a populist and producerist epithet, carrying an implicit accusation that the people it described were insulated from all negative consequences of their programs purported to benefit the poor and that the costs and consequences of such programs would be borne in the main by working-class or lower-middle class people who were not so poor as to be beneficiaries themselves. In particular, Procaccino criticized Lindsay for favoring unemployed minorities, blacks and Hispanics, over working-class .

One Procaccino campaign memo criticized "rich super-assimilated people who live on and maintain some choicemansions outside the city and have no feeling for the small middle class shopkeeper, homeowner, etc. They preach the politics of confrontation and condone violent upheaval in society because they are not touched by it and are protected by their courtiers". later stated that "Lindsay came across as all style and no substance, a 'limousine liberal' who knew nothing of the concerns of the same 'silent majority' that was carrying Richard Nixon to the WhiteHouse at the very same time."

Desegregation

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against school integrationdelays in Alexanderv. HolmesCounty Boardof Education, former Alabamagovernor George Wallace denounced the court's decision and called the Justices "limousine hypocrites". Wallace continued this line of attack when he ran for governor again in1970, as Steve Fraser notes:

Later use

The New York Observer applied the term to 2008Democratic presidential candidate , who paid $400 for a haircut () and, according to the newspaper, "lectures about poverty while living in gated opulence".

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton used the term latteliberal to criticize (mostly white and ) people "sit[ing] around " who advocated for the "defundthe police" movement and ignored the concerns of African-Americans that suffer under highcrime rates and rely on a strong police force.

See also

References

Further reading

  • The Myth of the Limousine Liberal
  • Baffled by Trump and American right-wing populism? Read Steve Fraser’s The Limousine Liberal.
  • The left’s best defense against Trump? Ditching limousine liberalism
  • The hypocrisy of the limousine liberals