From kth:
Believing in supply-side economics is perhaps like believing in the Rapture. In polite circles, conservatives either don't believe in it or won't admit to believing. But among the conservative unwashed, you can't not believe in it. A talk radio host who denied that tax cuts increase tax revenues would be about as successful as a televangelist who preached that the Rapture was just an allegory.
Sadly, I don't think that's true for "polite circles." Serious academic types may not profess belief in supply side economics, but the conservative pundit elite -- folks like Novak, and Tony Blankley -- certainly do, and they're joined by the conservative think tanks which make up the movement's ideological core. In some ways. a better example of this phenomenon is immigration, where the elites really are repulsed by the base, but seem to have largely given up on getting sensible legislation passed, and are now on-board for short-term political advantage.
I was trying to think what issues on the left divide the base from the elite in the way that kth suggests. Maybe trade, but the elites fight with the base on trade, they don't look on indulgently as Democratic politicians legislate in ways they disagree with. For some time, withdrawal from Iraq was grassroots dogma that was viciously opposed by Democratic elites, but that's no longer the case. Indeed, I can't think of any realms where the elites disagree, but don't battle, the base. Am I missing something?
