My objection is not just academic or aesthetic or cultural; it’s also political. I don’t believe in technocracy. I don’t think I (or people like me) am qualified to lead the country or to have a Clinton-like position in this country because I went to good schools or read a lot of books. There’s a limited place for expertise in a democracy, but it’s limited. I know I’m in the minority here on this, but I get no comfort from the fact that Barack Obama reads great literature (that was a Facebook post a while back) or that Chelsea Clinton knows how to name drop Arendt. For me, that doesn’t reflect the legitimate needs for some limited expertise. Nor does it reflect the requirements of good leadership, and it sure as sh%$ is not about democracy. It’s about social class, social standing, and social signaling.

—Cory Robin on his Twitter exchange with Chelsea Clinton over her clueless use of the Hanna Arendt quote, “The Banality of Evil.”

Mr. Robin is not intending to be deeply profound, he correctly sees this as just some bullsh%$ on the internet, but in a very real way, he has put his finger on the pulse of what is wrong with the current Democratic Party.

The current mission of the party is to produce the feeling of virtue with the top 10% of social strata that believes themselves not to be sociopaths, which might explain why it’s been performing so poorly among the rest of the country.