Limousine liberal is a term used to describe wealthy individuals who hold liberal political views but are unaffected by the laws they support. The term is often used pejoratively, and those labeled as such may act against their own policies or propose programs that only benefit lower socioeconomic classes. However, there are wealthy individuals who hold liberal views and are willing to pay more in taxes to support programs that benefit the poor and middle class. Other countries have similar terms, such as socialist champagne in the UK and left caviar in France.
Limousine liberal is a term coined by New York mayoral candidate Mario Procaccino in 1969. He used the term to describe his opposition, John Lindsay, who won the mayoral race. The term limousine liberal referred to Lindsay and the financial status of many of his supporters. Lindsay was wealthy and had the support of numerous wealthy people, hence the term limousine, but he was liberal, on the left in politics, in many of his decisions.
When using the limousine liberal is often pejorative because the person claiming to represent the people tends not to have much in common with the electoral college. The person is not poor, so any social program, such as the bus that happened in the 1970s, is unlikely to affect him, since the person can send his children to private school. Some of the programs proposed by liberals in limousines may not require their participation at all and will only be of interest to people of lower socioeconomic status. For example, such a person might propose more funding for schools by raising fees for lower-middle-class people and avoid having to pay higher fees as a member of the upper class or through tax loopholes.
In the most severe cases of limousine liberalism, the person so named expresses deep concern about an issue that affects the world, a specific class of people, or something else. For example, a person who advocates environmental change and drives an SUV, or is indeed chauffeured in a limousine, is expressing limousine liberalism to the core. The quote “Do as I say, not as I do” is apropos.
It is not true that people who support a strong leftist view of government have to be poor to have credibility. Rather, limousine liberals act against their own policies or are unaffected by the laws they support. There are many wealthy people who hold liberal political views and are willing to support those views by paying more in taxes instead of demanding tax cuts. For example, many were surprised by this point of view expressed by Warren Buffett, in Barack Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope. Buffett willingly advocates higher taxation for the rich in order to support numerous programs that benefit the poor and middle class. It is not, as described by Obama, a liberal limousine.
Even a show of wealth by someone with a leftist view of government can evoke the title of limousine liberal. When Senator John Edwards campaigned in the Democratic primary in 2008 on the platform of helping the impoverished and being “one with the poor,” he was roundly criticized as a limousine liberal for getting a US$400 haircut ( USD). Some believe this has damaged his credibility as an anti-poverty candidate and have argued that he could not represent the poor if he could, without thinking, pay that much for a haircut.
Other terms related to liberal limousine are used in countries outside the United States and Canada. In the UK, for example, the pejorative term might be socialist champagne. In France, left caviar (caviar gauche) is used.
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