Bourgeois Bohemian/Analysis


 * A favorite Acceptable Target of conservatives, including some bourgeois conservatives who hypocritically exploit this type of character to discredit bohemianism or progressivism, or both. In the United States, the Democratic party is said to have these fellows as its main figureheads and financial contributors, if not necessarily its rank and file, hence "elitist" and "latte liberal" (and, briefly, "arugula") as the new favorite buzzwords of the Republicans. "Champagne socialist" is the British equivalent, as the North American definition of "liberal" is actually closer to "socialist" than to what it means in Europe. (Ironically, these types of epithets were originally coined by hardcore leftists mocking their bourgeois copycats, only to be later co-opted by conservatives as the conservative movement took on a more populist flavor.) In Australia and New Zealand, "chardonnay socialist" is the equivalent term.
 * Interestingly, the city of Oakland, which is just across the bay from San Francisco and is famously connected to it by a suspension bridge, is also leftist, but its brand is a more old-school, working-class leftism that has manifested itself in many forms over the years, including a 1946 general strike that brought the city to a standstill.