a foolish consistency
James C Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism:
An astute colleague of mine once observed that liberal democracies in the West were generally run for the benefit of the top, say, 20 percent of the wealth and income distribution. The trick, he added, to keeping this scheme running smoothly has been to convince, especially at election time, the next 30 or 35 percent of the income distribution to fear the poorest half more than they envy the richest 20 percent.