The American Ruling Class

Former Harpers Magazine editor Lewis Lapham wrote The American Ruling Class, a film about the elite that makes the big decisions in the country. Whether there is a ruling class in the United States used to be a controversial question in a country that prides itself on being democratic. But since the financial crisis of 2008, the powers that be have become visible to all. Goldman Sachs, the Koch brothers and their ilk can now be seen pulling the strings, both economically and politically.

Directed by John Kirby, The American Ruling Class is a highly entertaining dramatic documentary musical. It "explores our country’s most taboo topic: class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic." Serving as an oddly Vincent Price-like master of ceremonies, Lapham sends two fictional Yale grads on a series of interviews, some candid and some staged, with such power brokers as former secretary of State James Baker as well as progressive icons, such as Howard Zinn, filmmaker Robert Altman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Kurt Vonnegut, and Pete Seeger. This is a morality tale about power, its responsibilities and abuses