ABSTRACT
The values of new elites have spread across America. These new values have combined with other traditional values and behaviors to create a host of unintended consequences. It took years for social science findings on the superiority of the traditional nuclear family to make its way into mainstream elite opinion. In the meantime, there was a major social revolution regarding the American family. Demographically, America is increasingly looking like an hourglass, with a narrow middle and a bulge on the top and bottom. But it is much more than a matter of economics. In the fifties, according to Murray, morality and lifestyle were more similar between strata. The issues of the sixties no longer spark the passions they once did. Ironically, many ordinary Americans do not whole-heartedly embrace the social and cultural politics of the liberal cosmopolitan elite, but they increasingly feel that things just happen to them.
