It started, for the most part, during the 1980s. Americans of modest means were encouraged to relate to the wealthy and powerful, ignoring their own circumstances. Don’t vote for people who have your interests at heart because your interests will soon change. You are a hardworking person and in America, a meritocracy, people like that will join the elite. Vote for the future you think you will have, not the present your are enduring. Union members needn’t support candidates who are pro-union. Seniors can support those who would decimate social security. Do not tax the rich because you’ll soon be rich.

Of course, the math doesn’t add up. No matter how much of a meritocracy we are, not every person who works hard will become incredibly successful. A good deal of luck goes into these things as well. And voting so often for our fantasies instead of our realities has only made things more difficult for the great majority.

It was no surprise that former Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous host Robin Leach recently called President Obama a “socialist.” But Leach tripped himself up on one point while doing so. He said that he came to America in the 1960s hoping to become wildly successful and wants those opportunities for others, not mentioning how much tax policy and the corporate role in government has changed since then. As far as race and gender, the 1960s was a less fair time, but we weren’t then a country that based monetary policy on what was best for the super-rich. If anyone proposed that we return to the policies of the 1960s, Leach would call them socialists as well.•