DKE Rushmore- The Ultimate Power Elite

DKE Rushmore- The Ultimate Power Elite

Delta Kappa Epsilon UMN. February 21, 2022. Untitled. From Facebook. Retrieved 17 April, 2024 (https://www.facebook.com/DeltaKappaEpsilonUmn/photos/a.1503497979748219/4888938124537504/?type=3) 

The photo above is a new interpretation of the renowned Mount Rushmore, one that the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) members from the University of Minnesota took some creative liberties with. Instead of the real Mount Rushmore, located in South Dakota in the Black Hills region, this version exists solely on the internet thanks to the DKE’s. The real Mount Rushmore is a 60 foot high rock sculpture of the U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. This Facebook Mount Rushmore is pixelated and slightly blurry and spans three to four inches. The “DKE Rushmore” shows U.S. President’s Rutherford B. Hayes, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Theodore Roosevelt and Gerald R. Ford (from left to right, in that order). Each President stares into the eyes of the viewer, all seeming to be looking in the same direction which is different from the actual sculpture, in which each President’s stares in a different direction. Viewers get the clearest image of George W. Bush, whom we cannot seem to escape. He is completely centered in the image, perhaps because he was the most recent President of the five. In DKE Rushmore the five President’s suits are also visible, with all but Roosevelt having a clearly seen, neatly knitted tie and suit jacket. The DKE’s did not forget to include some natural scenery, showing trees at the bottom of the mountainside as well as some spanning peaks on the sides of the farthest President’s. 

In “The Power Elite,” C. Wright Mills argues that there is a small group of individuals in the United States that hold a large concentration of power. He refers to these individuals as the power elite, and he argues that the power elite controls three key orders, those being economic, military and governmental. The power elite sit in the middle of this hypothetical three way Venn Diagram, and thus a very small group of people are in charge of making complex and incredibly important decisions for this country, such as whether we go to war or what policies are passed in the government (Mills [1956] 2000: 3-4). According to Mills, these individuals are interconnected due to their shared origin. They have a sense of unity which leads them to have an easy time intermingling with one another, therefore creating a reproducible status of life for the people who come in later generations that share their origin as well. 

Looking at the photo above, there are a few characteristics that one can point out that all people share. They are all men, they are all white, they all once were President of the United States and finally, they were all members of Delta Kappa Epsilon at their respective colleges. Out of the forty six President’s that this country has had, five of them have belonged to the same fraternity. Five of these men, despite all going to different schools, can call themselves “brothers.” How can it be that such a large number of men that went on to hold the highest office in the United States all were members of the same fraternity? I argue that Mills’ power elite theory is seen in real time here, with these five men checking all of the boxes for controlling the military, the economy and most obviously the government. They also all come from a shared origin, being white men at extremely prestigious colleges (Yale, Harvard and the University of Michigan). How smooth that path must have been when it had been climbed before by your brother. The three ways that Mills argues help the power elite maintain their positions are also all seen here, with a shared psychology, structures that allow these men to stay in power, and explicit coordination with shared imperatives between institutions. These men all think the same way and despite the generations between them, are members of the same Greek family. Perhaps we have a future U.S. President in the third floor of Old Kenyon where DKE division housing is. Only time will tell who will be the next brother to follow. 

Wright, Mills C. 1997. “The Power Elite.” in Classes and Elites in Democracy and Democratization. Routledge.