"Don't you see how they see you? How they look down their nose at the average Americans? These elite snobs!"
— Former Pennsylvania senator and current GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum during campaign rally in Idaho last week.
There was a great chart in a recent edition of Time magazine showing the relative wealth of our presidents.
Based on 2010 dollars, the late John F. Kennedy had the highest net worth ($1 billion) by far. But in second place was one of the men whose birthdays we honor today — George Washington, whose worth in current dollars would be $525 million. (Abraham Lincoln, not surprisingly given his modest upbringing and lifestyle, is among the 11 presidents whose assets totalled less than $1 million.)
But the other presidents counted among the nation's founders were no slouches either when it came to making and keeping money. Thomas Jefferson places third with an estimated equivalent of $212 million in net worth; and James Madison ($101 million) is among the six whose fortunes exceeded $100 million. And though the figures for John Adams and James Monroe are a more modest $19 million and $27 million respectively, it allowed for a comfortable living then, as it would now.
That level of income, along with their intellects and leadership abilities, would make these men among the new nation's elite by almost any definition.
Perhaps it's true today that one of the key problems with our nation's leadership is the "elite" class that has grabbed the reins of government, and with the power of their money have steered government policy to benefit themselves. This was indeed one of the issues that the founders of our nation identified and sought to prevent, by crafting a republic where freedom and power is balanced.
There was a time when being among the elite was a good thing. No more, at least not in certain Republican circles where the preference seems to be for the lowest common denominator.
But Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, who bravely led the 13 colonies in their war of independence from Great Britain and helped draft our Constitution, were hardly common folk. By almost any measure, they were the elite of their day.
Which makes it particularly ironic when one hears those of a conservative, anti-elitist, strict-constructionist bent rail on about the importance of adhering to every word of the document these wealthy and influential men — the elite — were so instrumental in drafting.
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