The pushback against this year’s populist upsurge has been something to behold. Insider pundits, railing at the intruders, strain to convince themselves of their own good intentions. Establishment brains boggle at the eruption of the excluded. Commentators veer from the implausible to the incoherent. Have you ever seen such a mixture of anger and cluelessness?

Yes, you have. If you’ve spent time at the local zoning board.

There, the kind of conflict that dominated national politics this year has raged for generations. Zoning, backed up by homeowner associations and historic districts, serves mainly to preserve the social standing of residential quarters. Upscale suburbs uphold their status with a battery of regulations that range from minimum lot sizes to lawn-mowing ordinances to bans on overnight parking of work vehicles. Rising urban districts protect their special cachet by fighting off newcomers judged insufficiently hip.