The distinction between “elite” and “elitist” — so usefully pointed out by PersonfromPortlock — is very important.

While there are many flavors of elitist, two stand out to me. The first is a person without elite credentials who is overly impressed by those who do have them. The second is a person WITH elite credentials whose self worth is tied to those same credentials. Between the two there is a third group, almost its own flavor, comprising those who have some elite credentials but not those to which they aspire.

I went to an Ivy League college in the 1980s. I then went to a “top 20″ law school–a definite step down in the elitist world. One of the benefits of that move was that my fellow students were far more diverse, even in the rarified atmosphere of 95%+ LSAT scorers (selection criteria for the top 20 was still somewhat rigorous). I found myself with Mormons, Southern Baptists, stars from the parochial schools of the North Jersey industrial wasteland, most of whom were intellectually on par with my undergraduate colleagues, but none of whom had the Michelle Obama disease (I used to call it the Naomi Wolf attitude).

Michelle and Barack Obama are my generation. I know their type extremely well. Having attended Ivy League colleges, they would have been better off, perhaps, going to some law school other than Harvard, if only for the diversity. I don’t blame them for their choice — had I been admitted to Harvard Law, I of course would have attended as well.

As to the political philosophy point I tried to articulate above, Michael Young captures my thoughts perfectly:

“Obama’s approach betrays a very suffocating vision of the state as the be-all and end-all of political-cultural behavior. Outside the confines of the state there is no salvation, only resentment. This is nonsense, but it also partly explains why Obama is so admired among educated liberals, who still view the state as the main medium of American providence.”

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/125957.html

A note to Mr. Kimball: Thank you for your excellent work.