[LearsFool]

One of the distinguishing features of America from the founding throughout our history has been classlessness.

Sorry, wrong answer.

It's not classlessness that distinguishes America, but the freedom to traverse class upward - with hard work, frugality, and luck. Sometimes it takes a few generations, sometimes it can be done in one.

But classlessness?? Uh, no.

[livius]

The defining element of class in the US was not heritage but money. This is a good thing and a bad thing.

Right now, we’re being crushed by a fantastically wealthy political class. Many of them, including Obama and his nasty family, made their money after being anointed by the über wealthy (Soros, the Saudis, et al.) to run. Others, like Gore, made it by exploiting their connections or their new- found power.

Think last days of Rome, folks. The freedom to make money has been interpreted by them as the freedom to oppress, but that is because most of them made their money from government or from being favored by government.