In our time it is broadly true that political writing is bad writing - George Orwell - 1946

Unfortunately, nothing has changed since 1946, when Orwell thunk this thought and wrote these words.

In 2010, replace the word "writing" with "speechifying", we have:

• Palin and the lunatics of Fox radio and TV for whom writing is anathema, and literacy is a signifier of the liberal elite.
• Moslem fundamentalists who want to impose shariah law on civil society
• Christian fundamentalists who interpret the Torah literally (but only in the often inaccurate but elegant King James Version), except when they want to eat pork, or a cheeseburger, or when it is otherwise inconvenient, and want to impose their inconsistent vision on American society

This motley collection of lunatics and their Republican fellow travelers in the USA and their allies or opponents in other countries, have managed to make both "liberal" and "elite" negative terms.

Liberal:

 

• S: (adj) liberal (having political or social views favoring reform and progress)
• S: (adj) liberal (tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition)

Elite:

• S: (adj) elect, elite (selected as the best)

For all of  them, "liberal elite" appears to be a bad thing - they are against reform and progress, intolerant of change, and bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, and tradition, and not do not wish to become one of the best. This is the mantra of the self-styled "Libertarian" and "Conservative" movements - American, Christian, and Muslim.

As an American by choice, I hope that the spirit of America can prevail against all of these lunacies.

To break into political writing - GMAFB.