In any social grouping, someone is going to wind up in charge. It may be the result of a vote, but the vote will go to the person most people think should be in charge.
In any human group, some people will be either actually more able, or perceived to be more able–which amounts to better ability at what we might call Projection or Image Management, so the point remains, even if bullshitting is the skill in question–and they will always tend to do better.
By accidents of genetics and birth, some people are more intelligent, more persistent, more resourceful, more social adept, more creative, or better at whatever it is we care about at that point. This point is indisputable.
And obviously if we punish elites we in effect reward average-ness, or what might reasonably be called relative mediocrity. No nation which does not empower its best to do their best is going to survive long, at least when other nations are not operating under the same constraint.
We can acknowledge openly that life is not fair and some people are just more apt to succeed in anything they do than others, or we can pretend that because we deem this unfair, that such people should be torn down, as in Harrison Bergeron.
Here is the irony or deal breaker: attacks on elites amount to efforts to mobilize resentment and hate to usher in a DIFFERENT elite, that lacks the capability and talent that the actual elite does. How does an utter mediocrity like Maxine Waters keep getting elected? She tells everyone how awful white Republicans are, and how she has to oppose them. She herself is dumb as a box of rocks. She herself does not live with the poor of her district: she lives, OBVIOUSLY, in a large mansion, presumably with a security detail and chauffeur.
So what has she done? Without possessing ability or intelligence, she has created a very successful career promising to do everything and actually accomplishing next to nothing. Her district is a mess. If she is bringing home the bacon, then only a few are benefitting. Year in, year out, she does not propose major initiatives that would ACTUALLY make a difference. No: she simply uses class and race hatred to deflect attention from the fact that she ACCOMPLISHES NOTHING. And why would she? She is a mediocrity.
There is always going to be an elite. This is a fact of human nature. The only question is whether the elite is those actually possessing ability or those whose main “talent”–whose main means to elite status and power–is moral vacuity and deceit.