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Why WASPs make good leaders I suppose it was inevitable that as the son of Jewish immigrants, Ralph Lipchitz or Lauren sells us WASP ruling class clothing and that Martha Stewart, the daughter of Polish immigrants, brilliantly merchandises ruling-class housekeeping, that in these days of yearning for authenticity, an actual WASP dynasty would actually offer itself as actual rulers. As Barbara Bush pointed out last month (and was immediately hushed), one in eight Americans is already governed by a Bushie, so why not the whole lot? After all, WASP style is quite obviously America's favourite thing. Even the Kennedys, bright and shining examples to us all that they are, are actually urban Irish, mimicking clans like the Bushes, who practically invented the whole big family devoted to public service, with a large photographable compound by the sea-thing. George W. Bush is poised to become president with one of the thinnest resumes in history, so the enthusiasm mounting in Philadelphia is based more upon the belief that W. has inherited leadership skills, that will get him through the roughest of times in the toughest job in the world. We're a world hooked on style, no matter how we protest we're not, but in fact, it is quite possible that the Republican base may be right. Though Bush says he comes from Texas, he actually was born in New Haven, Conn. And though he says he went to Midland Jr. High, we all know he finished high school at Andover, one of New England's classiest prep schools. Yale, with membership in the elite Skull and Bones society, and Harvard Business School followed. But I suggest the strongest influence on W. is not those schools, Texas or even New England, but the ethics of his clan and the old-line patrician Yankee WASP establishment. "Money," said W. to Time this week, "was not how my grandfather measured your life. If you had money, it came with an obligation to serve. He once said that the most important thing a person could do was public service." Bush's grandfather's lesson was "before you enter public service you go out and make some money and take care of your family." But, W. goes on to protest, he does not think he is a member of the old-line establishment, he's a Texan, and besides his people were not grand, they were humble. They lived in Hobe Sound and Greenwich, but they were ordinary. Snap! That's how you notice the real thing. True WASP style is humble and modest. Your house is not glitzy. In fact, even though it may be big (all those children and cousins) it's probably a bit of a hodgepodge. The furniture is nice enough, it's definitely old, but lots of it is broken, and everything is covered in dog hair, because dogs are the only people that WASPS can really talk to, since dogs expect nothing. Your ambitions are never higher than taking care of your family, and you duck and dodge public notice at every corner, unless it serves your higher purpose, which has to do with what? Taking care of your family and performing public service. That's how come a true WASP looks, as Bush has in this run-up to his nomination, completely at ease with the world. Because the code by which you live is so clear, unless you break out completely, there's nothing for it but to relax and follow the rules. Which is why so many drink and why Bush's 10-year binge makes him even more the authentic real real thing. Young WASPs, if they're smart, can't stand the burden under which they operate. That's why they drink or run away. Now I went to one of those schools and grew up in one of those villages where WASPs congregate to be with their own kind, with whom, after all, they are more comfortable, because then everyone knows the rules. There are lots of Canadian families like the Bushes, less grand perhaps, but still with the same blood and history, the same drive to service. Like Bush, I ran away as soon as I could figure out how to make money, mostly since it was so tiring to be a lady all the time and I was curious about life outside the cotton wool padding that surrounded us. But look, whenever people tell me that all politicians are corrupt, that crony capitalism rules, that all businessmen are thieves, my back goes up. It ain't true, people are having fun with your head. There is lots of good in the marketplace and in politics. The WASP world may be narrow, but it has goodness in its tiny shrivelled heart. It knows the rules and plays by them for the solid pragmatic (and we're nothing if not pragmatic) reason, that, in the long run, being good works better. This is now called, in sociology-speak, values-based behaviour. As a culture, we're hungry for that and until we manage to create, all of us together, a set of rules that we can all live by, and prosper, without corruption, lies theft and the politics of envy, the Bushies and that Lily Pulitzer green and pink, madras wearing, goofily named bunch of prep-school kids are the best thing on the horizon.

© 2004 Elizabeth Nickson The material at this website is available only for personal non-commercial purposes, and it may not be reproduced without permission.