SANDEL'S JUST DESSERTS: The primary problem with meritocracy in America is that those in the leadership are without it.

[M]any Americans are more likely to disdain Harvard for its haughtiness and for the pretensions of its faculty and graduates to impose their progressive views and preferences on the entire nation than to aspire to send their children there. He [Sandel] fails to consider that substantial numbers of Americans are proud of their local way of life, have no yearning to live in Manhattan or Silicon Valley, and mostly want progressive elites to mind their own business.

The PowerLine post is longish but eminently readable; the Washington Free Beacon book review is as well. Read both.