As a general rule of populist politics, when railing against the elites, it’s generally a bad idea to brag about having a degree from an Ivy League university. Steve Bannon never learned that at Harvard.
“By the way, Morning Joe, you called me a Yankee the other day, just because I’m from Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy,” Bannon said, taking aim at MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough during a rally for beleaguered Alabama Republican Roy Moore. “That’s right, Joe, I got into some Yankee schools, Georgetown and Harvard, that I don’t think you made the cut on, brother.”
While that’s an impressive resume, debates over collegiate supremacy are only appropriate among petty bluebloods in pretentious places like the Beltway. It’s the easiest way to impress coastal elites and simultaneously alienate rural voters.
One doesn’t need an advanced degree to realize that this is not an advisable thing to say during a neck-and-neck special Senate election.
Not only did Bannon highlight his elitism in a state where less than 24.2 percent of the population holds a college degree, Bannon managed to trash one of the most famous alumni of the state’s beloved university. Scarborough didn’t go to Harvard or Georgetown. He went to the University of Alabama, the southern college with that dominant football team and those fanatical fans.
For an overly educated man like Bannon, this mistake is especially stupid. What do they teach at these Ivy League schools anyway?
