Viewer Mail – A new reader of WHYGJD asks, “What is a limousine liberal?” I’ve used this term a few times already, so perhaps it is time to clear the air. For clarification, we’ll turn to two new members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VRWC): Bernard Goldberg, former correspondent for the CBS Evening News and the late Stokley Carmichael, a civil rights activist and member of the Black Panther party. These definitions are taken from the best-selling book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News, written by Goldberg, who labels himself as an “old-fashioned” liberal of the non-limousine variety and from the New York Times.

Goldberg: “[a limousine] liberal is someone who loves affirmative action, as long as their kids get into Ivy League Schools. They love handing out jobs based on racial preferences, as long as they get to keep theirs. It’s always someone else who has to make the sacrifice—sometimes Asian-American kids, sometimes other white students who don’t get into places like Harvard, Yale and Princeton—while the liberal white elites get to claim credit for being so decent, the saviors of black people in America.”

Carmichael: “What the [limousine] liberal really wants is to bring about change which will not in any way endanger his position. Now that I realize how phony they all were, how I hate myself for it."

In the Bay Area, the limousine liberal can be seen on the highways driving to work alone in a massive SUV, while opposing oil drilling in Alaska. They fight for minimum wage hikes and for “living wage” initiatives, while haggling over money with the maid who cleans their house twice a month for $40. They favor tax increases to support public school budgets, while they send their kids to elite, lily-white private schools that only they can afford. And they gloat endlessly about their commitment to civil rights, while they deny to Asian-Americans children the same college and high school admissions standards used for their own offspring. In summary, they are hypocrites of the worst kind—a sneering group of selfish, guilt-ridden, self-centered, irresponsible putzes.