To oversimplify, there are three types of people who rule America. The politically powerful, the intelligentsia, and the rich. They represent three types of power: the ability to win hearts, the ability to win minds, and the ability win wallets.

According to an article promoted by The New York Times, Ashkenazi Jews are genetically more intelligent than other American ethnic groups. Since intelligence can be defined as the cognitive ability to adapt your environment to your advantage, we should expect Ashkenazi Jews to rise to the top of American society, and we should expect lower IQs ethnic groups to be underrepresented among elites, so let’s see if this is the case.

The politically powerful: The politically powerful are probably the least intelligent of the American elites and thus can sometimes be manipulated by the rich and the intelligentsia. Indeed there have been several U.S. presidents who have seemed like puppets for more intelligent advisors behind the scenes.

I define the politically powerful as not just those who have been elected to public office, but rather as anyone who has a large constituency of loyal followers, since virtually any popular American has the ability to be a political force. A good measure of political power is Gallup’s most admired list. A quick perusal of the list reveals, that Ashkenazi Jews are not especially over-represented, but African Americans are. If measured by sheer popularity, African Americans are arguably the most politically powerful group, per capita, in society. I discussed possible reasons for this here.

Blacks have used their political power to achieve certain benefits like affirmative action and a black president. However raw political power is the only type of power African Americans have a lot of; as we will see, they are dramatically underrepresented in the two other types of power.

The intelligentsia: The intelligentsia are those who wield power not by winning the hearts of the masses, but by winning the minds of other elites. They are the columnists for The New York Times, the professor who writes a book that the President of the United States reads before bed, the members of Think Tanks who propose policy, and the intellectuals who provide the white house with expertise.

These elites are not rich or famous and most Americans have never heard of them, but they wield an enormous amount of power behind the scenes because billionaires and presidents turn to them for guidance and read their columns in The New York Times. They also wield power because they largely decide who gets to become rich and powerful in America and who gets to stay that way. If The New York Times decides a certain billionaire, celebrity, or politician is evil, all it takes is a few scathing editorials or exposés that the rest of the media mindlessly parrots, and the elite must resign in scandal. As the saying goes, never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

Because Ashkenazi Jews have high IQs, they are dramatically over-represented among the intelligentsia. Despite beig 2% of America, Ashkenaz Jews are an astonishing 50% of America’s most influential pundits. By contrast, African Americans are 12% of America but only 2% of the 50 most influential pundits. This ethnic distribution suggests that the intelligentsia have very high IQs on average.

The rich: Billionaires wield enormous power in America because politicians are enormously dependent on money to fund their campaigns and fund their endless political advertising. The rich also have the power to buy major newspapers, television networks, internet search engines, and fund universities and thus dramatically dictate which intellectuals get hired as influential members of the intelligentsia. Because getting rich demonstrates intelligence (the ability to adapt your environment to your advantage), the high IQ Ashkenazi Jewish population is 36% of the 400 richest Americans, despite being only 2% of America. By contrast, blacks are only 0.25% of the 400 richest Americans, despite being 12% of America