Those words of founding fathers were uttered many years ago. But Epstein's words were no less fierce:

"A financier I know who grew up under the WASP standard not long ago told me that he thought that the subprime real estate collapse and the continuing hedge fund scandals have been brought on directly by men and women who are little more than 'greedy pigs' (his words) without a shred of character or concern for their clients or country. Naturally, he added, they all have master's degrees from the putative best business schools in the nation.

"Thus far in their history, meritocrats, those earnest good students, appear to be about little more than getting on, getting ahead and (above all) getting their own. The WASP leadership, for all that may be said in criticism of it, was better than that.

Epstein argues that White Anglo-Saxon men born into rich, protestant families would never lead the country astray.

Really? The establishment was once dominated by WASPs, such as John Foster Dulles, McGeorge Bundy and Robert McNamara, the so-called "best and brightest." Dulles advocated support of the French in their war against the Viet Minh, and Bundy and McNamara got the U.S. into the disastrous Vietnam War.

Epstein is not only against minorities and the meritocrats. Back in the 1970s, he wrote an article for Harper's Magazine, in which he wished "homosexuality off the face of the earth." His comments led to protests outside the Harper's office.

American politics has become dysfunctional partly because the Tea Party wing of the Republicans cannot stand the idea that a black man is sitting in the White House. So they will fight everything Obama stands for.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.ccgp-fushun.com/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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