We really need a comeback on this slur, right away.  Now that perhaps the L word is losing some strength, it is obviously the goal of the Republican party to brand Democrats with this E word.

I think we tend to shrug and groan-- David Brooks thinks someone besides him is an elitist? -- etc.

But it is really potentially toxic for the Democrats, and I haven't seen much of a good comeback on it. 

(I'm not really wanting this thread to feed into the Clinton-Obama insanity; I have no doubt that while she is using this Right wing talking point right now, it will be turned against her the second she wins the nomination, if she does.)

What follows are some thoughts on this topic off the top of my head.  I'd love to generate a conversation that would push this discussion a lot farther than my preliminary attempts, which I don't think go very far. 

I can think of several grounds for labelling someone an elitist.

1) People who are very rich and thus shielded from the struggles of day-to-day economic life.  The Republican party has far more of these than the Democratic party.  (And of course, nearly all of the commentariat is in this category, cf, Charles Gibson and his question about a cop and a professor earning $200k.)

2) People with more education, and thus quite likely jobs that are professional, managerial, etc.  Not run of the mill "workers".  One of you numbers-wonks tell me how Ds and Rs break out on this.

3) People who just simple believe they know more and better than other people.  Now my opinion on this is that the Right Wing has far more of these people than the Left does -- you have to get pretty far Left to be doctinaire and ideological.  So many liberals are unclear exactly what they stand for -- we can't be both unclear about our values, and trying to cram our values down other people's throats, eh?

4) People who are part of the group that determines the "dominant culture".  Perhaps this is the category that is really making the Right crazy-- they think progressives dominate the media and entertainment industries and dominate the field of education.  Part of what this means is that we have won some of the culture wars of the past several decades-- women are working outside the home, everyone is recycling, gays are out of the closet, etc.  But the Right has to take this loss and inflame and infect it with their version of class warfare -- what those elitists who hate America are doing to destroy our country.

I don't know that the Right is using elistist in a consistent way-- it is just a useful weapon for beating anyone who is not with them over the head.

But do we have a consistent comeback, a put-down, a ready response??

And of course, one more thought, I think part of the reason the MSM loves to feed this stuff is their unspoken guilt about how much they are nearly all part of the elite themselves. 

Your thoughts?