Folks who just care about helping their families and neighbors have a good, productive life.

From Diner breakfasts are perfectly normal, no matter what D.C. elites think by Salena Zito.

A Washington, D.C.-based journalist working for a well-respected newspaper — seeing someone being interviewed at a diner for another reporter’s story — recently tweeted: “Who has time to sit down for breakfast at a diner on a weekday? Feels like people who have time for a leisurely weekday diner breakfast are not normal!”

It was another reminder that those who work for our cultural curators — corporations, academia, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and our national newsrooms — often have very little in common culturally with many of the people who buy their products, attend their schools, stream their shows, use their social media platforms or read their news stories.

(It was also a swipe at yours-truly, made explicit in a follow-up tweet about “the salena zito-style real american interview.”)

Unfortunately, many of these people who live and work and socialize in the “super zip codes” amuse themselves by mocking people who frequent diners, gas stations, Dollar Generals, Dunkin Donuts and other un-trendy places.

Keystone College political science professor Jeff Brauer sees it as a big part of the cultural divide in this country that has caused both the Republican and Democratic coalitions to shift so significantly over the past few years.

“Too many journalists, academicians and Washington insiders are still misreading the current political climate and divide in the U.S.,” explained Mr. Brauer. “There is still too much focus on left versus right, liberal versus conservative and Democrat versus Republican.”

The divide, he said, is much more inside versus outside, and has contributed to the rise of populism in both parties.

“At the heart of this populism is not traditional political ideology and debate; the heart is the haves versus the have-nots, the insiders versus the outsiders, the out-of-touch decision-makers versus the everyday folks trying to get by — folks who don’t care about ideology, folks who just care about helping their families and neighbors have a good, productive life.”

Mr. Brauer added that it’s also about the rejection of the elites — like people who poke fun at those who eat at diners, and “who use their position, influence and power pushing their world view on those without power. The rejection of paternalistic elites who are ever-so-ready to tell others what is best for them, what they should believe, and what is ‘normal.’”