"deep alienation between the power holders of a society and the masses."

Such were the fruits of "compassion." The politics of pity and fear deepened the split between the "civilized minority" and the racist majority, as liberals now thought of it. The civil rights movement, originating in a powerful challenge to self-righteousness and resentment, ended by reinforcing the worst qualities in American liberalism: a sense of superiority to the unenlightened masses, a refusal to credit opponents with honorable intentions, a growing reluctance to submit their policies to public approval. But liberals had begun to lose faith in public opinion, as we have seen, as early as the twenties. Subsequent success had never entirely removed their suspicions. On the contrary, their sense of estrangement from America continued to grow, for reasons we must now attempt to reconstruct in some detail.

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