WASP Agonistes

The class privilege that benefited my father (Andover, Dartmouth and Fortune 500 employment) wasn't a helpful factor for my generation, and is now an encumbrance for my boys.  Despite graduating near the top of his class and with near perfect SATs, one of my sons couldn't "achieve" Ivy League admission, as they admitted "more qualified" applicants.  Yet his college delights in charging full tuition, for which we do qualify, and regularly dun us for all kinds of donations.  But all's not lost, one thing my sons might be in demand for these days are Ralph Lauren ads.

In "That Bright, Dying Star: the American WASP," The Wall Street Journal reports on the demise of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, disparagingly known as WASPs.

"In the long downward spiral of what used to be known as America's Protestant Establishment, there have been several momentous milestones: Harvard's opening up its admissions policies after World War II. Corporate America's rush in the 1980s to bring more diversity to the corner office. Barack Obama's inauguration as the first African-American president.

"History may reveal another milestone—Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. If she is confirmed, the nation's nine most powerful judges will all be Catholic or Jewish, leaving the court without a Protestant member for the first time."

"Of the 111 Supreme Court Justices who have served, 35 have been Episcopalians, making them the largest religious group on the court, according to court historians. The court's first non-Protestant was Catholic Justice Roger Taney, appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1836."

While opportunity should be available to all irrespective of race, religion or socioeconomic status, one could argue the irony that today's social and financial redistribution policies are now blind to real merit. 

As one reader put it, "Most WASPs represent a system of values that led to this country's great success -- hard work, fairness, patriotism and the crazy idea that if one works harder than another, one deserves to enjoy greater success. What is lost to the Supreme Court isn't the narrow perspective of the unjustly privileged and irrelevant few, it is the very set of ideals that founded this country."