liberal elite
3
7.7
- noun
- /ˈlɪbərəl ɪˈlit/
- Literature
:
élite liberal
- Many politicians criticize the policies of the liberal elite for favoring wealthy interests over the needs of ordinary citizens.
- Hollywood liberal elite
And I know what you're thinking, that I'm some sort of, I don't know, liberal elite who doesn't go to home stores.
- And I know what you're thinking, that I'm some sort of, I don't know, liberal elite who doesn't go to home stores.
- And, and, and The thing is, we've got an issue here that our liberal elites are being intimidated by Islamism.
- It's that liberal elite with their vested interests who desperately desire a sense of victimhood.
Examples
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Ollie is a reality-based intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite.
Blog text (3) -
The liberal elite is used by the business elite to gouge the poor.
Blog text (27) -
No pricey private schools for this family, like many of the liberal elites in CA seem to favor.
Blog text (27) -
The experiences of liberal elites are so outside of the mainstream that, very often, they just don't understand the working class.
Blog text (6) -
Clearly, these ideas situated her among the white liberal elite of New York: tolerant and meliorist, but not militant.
Academic text (2014) -
Obama is the new school coalition: Blacks, Hispanics, Greens, the New Left, white liberal elites, women if he can pander successfully to Althouse.
Blog text (13) -
Part of the U.S. liberal elites was puzzled and uneasy with the unexpected consequences of the international projection of American liberal ideas abroad, in particular in Latin America.
Academic text (2018) -
The documentary explores how the liberal elite influences cultural trends and political discourse in urban areas.
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During the debate, he accused the liberal elite of being disconnected from the struggles of the working class.
How Influential
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently built from the constituents: 'liberal' (holding liberal views) + 'elite' (a privileged/influential group), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to influential people with liberal views. This noun+noun compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically, so only minimal exposure is needed (though the phrase can carry extra political connotations beyond the literal meaning).
Etymology
Liberal elite gives a picture of a small group of rich or well educated people in cities and at top universities who share liberal views and form an elite, a powerful group. So, people use the phrase to say this group shapes public opinion or policy and is sometimes 'out of touch' with ordinary voters.