SAY
"an elete"
Which distinguishes a member so described.
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Not really, 'elite' is normally used as a collective noun: "Where the elite meet to eat", or "He is a member of the elite".
People I know would not say, "Percival is an elite", or "Montmorency and Percival are elites", but rather "Percival and Montmorency are MEMBERS of the elite."
Just as a classicist is some one who admires the classics in literature, art, and music, an 'elitist' is a person who respects the concept that some people are better prepared for government leadership roles than others, such people being known as the 'elite'. One can consider just who is a member of the elite in several ways: in England, this was done by birth: someone born into the nobility, for example, like Winston Churchill. (Had Winston been an American, his disastrous failure at Gallipoli, based on reading the classics, would have destroyed his career forever: but being a member of the nobility, he was still respected by the Tories ).
In the US the normal way we regard this is as a meritocracy: someone who has acquired superior leadership abilities through an above-average mental ability and practical experience in relating to the people who elect him or her.
One does not elect someone to fix one's shoes based on popularity or parentage: one chooses a shoe repairman based on how well they repair shoes. Lamentably, we use popularity more than any other factor in choosing our leaders. Of all the candidates who ran for president, Dodd, Kucinich and perhaps Richardson stood out as superior in terms of leadership experience, but no one was better qualified than Ted Kennedy from an overall perspective.
Still, McCain seems better qualified than Huckabee, Romney, Giulani or either Thompson, and Hillary and Obama are certainly adequately qualified to run the country.
I have always felt that a parliamentary system gets more accomplished and accomplishes it better than the system we have, because the legislature tends to choose prime ministers with whom it respects, and this is not true of presidents and Congress.
All countries are ruled by some sort of elite, and will be until a Web-based anarchist and truly democratic system can be invented and introduced, with everyone voting on every issue.