Boy, is that ever the truth. In reality, liberalism is the ideology of the american elite. Conservativism is the ideology of the american middle class.
As an undergrad at an ivy league university, I was confronted immediately with that dreaded species that inhabits the northeast: limousine liberals. The school was filled with spoiled rich kids who mouthed a pile of socialist garbage.
I spent a long time pondering this phenomenon (I was one of the most conservative students there...but I was also of a much more modest background than most of the lefties).
My own theory is this: these kids grow up with an enormous material prosperity that they haven't earned themselves. They see others in society with far less. As a result, they begin to feel guilty.
Now...there are two possible paths for them to take at this juncture:
1) Honest: Simply refuse to take the handouts from daddy. They can decide that they will make it on their own in life and not spend the rest of their lives sponging off of their daddies' wealth.
2) Dishonest: These are the ivy league liberals. They feel guilty that they live in a lap of luxury that they haven't earned themselves...but they lack the honesty to pass on all of the goodies. So, in their subconscious, they decide that its OK to take the goodies--despite the fact that they are unearned--so long as they mouth slogans and ideologies that show compassion for the "poor". Their ideological convictions become a moral permission slip for them to enjoy fabulous unearned wealth.