Limousine liberal


Limousine liberal and latte liberal are pejorative U.S. politics| terms used to illustrate perceived hypocritical behavior by affluent liberals and other Left-wing politics| people of upper-class or upper-middle class status. Related terms include "champagne socialist", "silver-spoon socialist", "Mercedes Marxist", and "Rednobility".

Formation and early use

Procaccino campaign

mayoral hopeful Mario Procaccino coined the term "limousine liberal" to characterize incumbent mayor John Lindsay and his wealthy Manhattan backers during a heated 1969campaign. Historian David Callahan says that Procaccino:
It was a populist and producerist epithet, carrying an implicit accusation that the people it described were insulated from all negative consequences of their programs purported to benefit the poor and that the costs and consequences of such programs would be borne in the main by working-class or lower-middle class people who were not so poor as to be beneficiaries themselves. In particular, Procaccino criticized Lindsay for favoring unemployed minorities, blacks and Hispanics, over working-class.
One Procaccino campaign memo criticized "rich super-assimilated people who live on and maintain some choicemansions outside the city and have no feeling for the small middle class shopkeeper, homeowner, etc. They preach the politics of confrontation and condone violent upheaval in society because they are not touched by it and are protected by their courtiers". later stated that "Lindsay came across as all style and no substance, a 'limousine liberal' who knew nothing of the concerns of the same 'silent majority' that was carrying Richard Nixon to the WhiteHouse at the very same time."

Desegregation

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against school integrationdelays in Alexanderv. HolmesCounty Boardof Education, former Alabamagovernor George Wallace denounced the court's decision and called the Justices "limousine hypocrites". Wallace continued this line of attack when he ran for governor again in1970, as Steve Fraser notes:

Later use

The New York Observer applied the term to 2008Democratic presidential candidate, who paid $400 for a haircut and, according to the newspaper, "lectures about poverty while living in gated opulence".
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton used the term latteliberal to criticize people "sit around " who advocated for the "defundthe police" movement and ignored the concerns of African-Americans that suffer under highcrime rates and rely on a strong police force.