The WASP-less election
I hadn’t thought of this before, but it’s an interesting point that Peter Shrag makes:
For the first time in the 236-year history of the Republic, no one on either presidential ticket belongs to the once-prototypical American group, the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
Until 2008, when black Protestant Barack Obama ran with Catholic Joe Biden, we’d never had even one party offer a non-WASP ticket.
But that’s not all:
Looking past the presidential contenders, John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, is Catholic, and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader is Mormon. There’s not a WASP to be found among the nine justices of the Supreme Court (one black, five Catholic, three Jewish). That’s a clean sweep of all three branches of government.
Shrag goes on to add a lot of horse manure about how the voter ID laws are a backlash to all this, and an example of xenophobia. He conveniently ignores the fact that the same people who champion that movement are supporters of Catholic Paul Ryan, and black men such as Herman Cain and Allen West, as well as Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal and many others of varied ethnicities.
And funny thing, Obama seems to be the most WASP-like of the foursome, since that’s the predominant ethnic group on his mother’s side.
By the way, I can’t say I care much about the issue. I think of it more as a historical curiosity.
“..black Protestant Barack Obama..”**
**Note: Only if radical Liberation Theology is considered “Protestant”.**
I think Mormons count as WASP.
Being a WASP, I find it interesting to hear the mythology one sometimes hears. For example, I had a friend state that the upper east side of New York is predominately WASPs. My brother used to live there so I’ve hung out there a lot, and I definitely feel like a minority there. I feel that non-WASPs feel like there is a secret society controlling the money in this country. On the other hand, the only time I didn’t feel like a minority in New York was when I was taking the subway after Yankees won the World Series, which was filled with people leaving the game. Of course, I have no idea what religion the other people were.
Although it could be my personal bias; I have found attitudes in others to be very different than Protestants. I have not heard any Protestants saying that we need to stick together and help each other out. I have heard this from people of other ethnic groups and religions, especially if they believe I belong to their group. It may have been the case in the past. I may be on the outs of the important Protestants. It may be the case that it is illegal for Protestants to play favorites.
Trimegistus: Mormons would have to be WASMs.
“Mormonism” isn’t Protestant. In a nutshell, the doctrine is that it’s a restoration of the priesthood authority that the Savior left to Peter and the other apostles, but was lost when they died out. It’s not something that was organized in protest of the Catholic church.
To engage in some trivial pursuing.
I’m not sure how many white “Anglo-Saxon” Protestants we have had as presidents anyway, once you start to ask closely who and what is an Gen-u-wine Anglo-Saxon.
George Washington would certainly be one. Adams, Jimmy Carter, while the Bushes certainly count as such. Probably the vast majority without any doubt, or niggling about the meaning of “Anglo-Saxon”.
I can’t imagine why even a pedant would claim that Colonial families which were of Welsh stock and produced a President were not in a convenient sense “Anglo-Saxon” enough to serve any practical definition. That adds several more. Toss in the Dutch too.
We never had a White Norwegian Lutheran President, so I don’t know how he would have been classified.
But I guess we could get into whether white Protestants whose ancestors were all from Scotland via Belfast, were in really fact “Anglo-Saxon”, and in what sense.
Jackson and Buchanan could possibly be seen as proto-deviations because of cultural factors which cause us to think of them as distinctly different, whereas Monroe and Polk seem perfectly mainstream and Anglo-Saxon as well as protestant and white.
The concept you are using probably dates from the late 1800s or the mid 20th century? I guess it just means a white man whose ancestors were from northern Europe Reformation states, and who practices some form of “Mainline” or even other Protestantism.
Romney is of course white and Anglo-Saxon. So “Anglo-Saxon” in fact, that among anthropologically interested bloggers, his social cohort has a special acronym designation which is used in genetic charting and population comparisons.
Charles Carroll was never elected President, nor was Tilden so we have never had a White Anglo-Saxon Catholic, or even Anglo-Saxon suspected-as-part-Catholic as president.
Though if Carroll had been, we still might not have had. Carroll was of Irish descent come to think of it.
I wonder if Unitarianism is considered “Protestantism” … or even a religion?
I’ve always thought of Mormons as all-American. The religion was founded here, after all.
Anyone besides me realize that in the po mo world we live in now, WASP can stand for white anglo saxon pagan?
Some people are so desperate to score ethnic points it makes me sad.
My summary of the historic 2008 election of Obama is: “Revolutionary change of power as Harvard JD replaces Harvard MBA in the White House.”
My sincere hope for the 2012 election is: “Revolutionary change of power as Harvard JD/MBA replaces Harvard JD in the White House.”
America is not a place, not a race, and not a grievance. The moral power of the young lady in the below linked video is stunning. I wonder what she would think of my “Obama is a nigger” claim? She would take the time to read it, understand its context, and I’m not sure whether she would find it hurtful or not. I really don’t think so because the slaves (niggers) of today are those too lazy to create their own wealth, willingly give up their own bodies and minds as property to the government, have no color or racial requirements, and, most of all, deep down, suffer great loss of self-esteem.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/17/video-kira-davis-open-letter-to-msnbcs-toure/
No wasps in the governmnet.? Well, not quite. There’s alot more government than merely the Supreme Court justices and the top echelon of the Federal government. I am sure WASPs are fairly represented. In the end, however, it’s not relevant, even as the most famous civil rights activists of them all stated the most important qualification is the quality of character.
I am a lover.
I am a fraud.
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/08/17/video-kira-davis-open-letter-to-msnbcs-toure/
Change your heart
Look around you
Change your heart
It will astound you
I need your lovin’
Like the sunshine
I screwed up the link, but, like writing poetry, the screwup was better than the prove up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qio7YOlIdPY
“America is not a place, not a race, and not a grievance.”
America, flawed as it may be, is ultimately self correcting and is, from my POV, about the sovereignty of the individual. Its not about the flag, its not about under god, and its not about the common good. Its about you and I and everyone’s natural (god given for you) right to do whatever we damn well please as long as we refrain from impinging upon the ability of others to do the same and do not molest minors or animals in the pursuit of our individual concept of the pursuit of happiness.
😉
Obama more of a WASP than the others? He issues proclamations on muslim holidays but not on Easter. He seems to be close friends with muslim leaders and goes out of his way to alienate western ones. WASP-like? Maybe in opposite world.
Love the libertarian challenge. Because I ask how taxes allowed. HMMM? You have from the first a weakness which is not in the conservative model which allows for government. We all know we need some, except for you, you are strange, severely strange, and the real radical, because you claim no govenrment at all is needed. How weird. Explain yourself because we want to know if your answer is more than mere anarchy, more than your often stated pistols?
Ever since the civil rights movement, which Progressives led (but weren’t solely responsible for), they equate, or even conflate, every single one of their favored policies with it. To oppose them on anything is now racist. Because 1965.
If I’m not mistaken, Justice Clarence Thomas is also Catholic, so does he count twice? How about Justice Sotomayor? There was an analysis a while back (which I think I read on this site) that partly attributed the Supreme Court’s current composition to the strong, centuries-old legal tradition of Catholics and Jews, a tradition which Protestants mostly lack. I’m not sure there’s a way to test the hypothesis that someone’s religious background might predispose that person to high-level legal thought, but it is interesting that a country that’s still majority Protestant (~51% according to the chart I read; Catholics are at 24%, and Jews 2%) does not have anyone from any of its many denominations on the nation’s highest court.
The Mormon Church was a product of the Second Great Awakening, a broad religious revival that swept much of the U.S. during the early 19th Century. Joseph Smith just took his revival a few steps farther than most in setting up an entirely new religion. (He and other Mormons have described it as a restoration; others, of course, do not see it that way).
I’m sorry Parker, I think I got too much sun today. Plus, I’m riding high from a very good judgment we got today. I had a point, which I’ve brought before, that libertarianism is, in the end, derivative.
Sorry about the strange comments. It’s rather me, obviously, that is strange.
Ahhh, what are you going to do?
DNW says:
“Charles Carroll was never elected President, nor was Tilden so we have never had a White Anglo-Saxon Catholic, or even Anglo-Saxon suspected-as-part-Catholic as president.”
Forgetting JFK, are we?
Dr Everett V. Scott Says:
August 18th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
DNW says:
“Charles Carroll was never elected President, nor was Tilden so we have never had a White Anglo-Saxon Catholic, or even Anglo-Saxon suspected-as-part-Catholic as president.”
Forgetting JFK, are we?”
Though if Carroll had been, we still might not have had. Carroll was of *Irish* descent come to think of it.
“Forgetting JFK, are we”
I don’t believe Irish qualifies as “Anglo-Saxon”. The prejudice against Irish was originally as great as what came later against south/east Europeans – “No Irish need apply” etc.
Gary Rosen Says:
August 19th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
“Forgetting JFK, are we”
I don’t believe Irish qualifies as “Anglo-Saxon”. The prejudice against Irish was originally as great as what came later against south/east Europeans — “No Irish need apply” etc. ”
Yes, that was my original point; which I poorly tried to remake by repeating a phrase from my first remark with emphasis, while neglecting to include quotation marks.
I tend to think that there are very few “Anglo-Saxon Catholic” families who are traceable to the original English settlement in America, and who somehow remained Catholic.
Even in Maryland they could never maintain their political ascendency. Bardstown Kentucky is one place they sought to go after having become – so the local Bardstown historian told me – a powerless minority in their “own” colony and later state.
But of course “Anglo-Saxon” as Neo-neocon was using it, almost certainly had a different reference anyway.