The Democrats Have an Elitism Problem. Sheldon Whitehouse Is the Latest Example

[DKW 86 7,433]

The Democrats Have an Elitism Problem. Sheldon Whitehouse Is the Latest Example

"It's a long tradition in Rhode Island."

That was Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's response to a question from a local journalist about his membership of the Bailey's Beach Club, a private and all-white beach club in tony Newport.

That a person of leadership in America belongs to such a club is outrageous. That a Democratic Senator who has spent quite a bit if time denouncing systemic racism would is doubly so.

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, his wife & their families have been members of an all-white private beach club for decades.

“It’s a long tradition in Rhode Island & there are many of them & I think we just need to work our way through the issues,” @SenWhitehouse said https://t.co/EA7rnkRiAX pic.twitter.com/gwaphKBYWq

— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) Jun

"We can and must do better to root out systemic racism in its many forms and meet America's full promise of justice for all," the Senator said in a press release last year.

The hypocrisy is enraging. But I for one am not surprised by it. Because this episode exposed something much deeper than Whitehouse's own hypocrisy. It exposed a class bias the Democratic Party has more generally, one that's all too often to be found lurking just behind platitudes about equality and justice.

Bailey's Beach Club is one of the most exclusive clubs in one of the most exclusive towns in America; Taylor Swift wrote "Last Great American Dynasty" about the woman who used to own her Newport mansion. Bailey's Beach Club represents nothing short of the pinnacle of WASP elitism. "There are people still living in Newport who have not only never held jobs, but literally never met people outside their class who didn't work for them," a local man told the New York Times in 2003, when it profiled the club.

Exclusive and restricted clubs like Bailey's Beach have long been used to entrench racial and class inequality, serving as a means for the wealthy elites of the Gilded Age and beyond to enjoy recreational activities and socialize with one another away from the lower-classes and other elements of society—Black folks, Jews, and Catholics—who they deemed beneath them.

By limiting membership only to the already powerful and wealthy, these clubs reinforced—and continue to reinforce—existing inequalities, allowing the wealthiest people in our country to further entrench their power by denying would-be interlopers access to their social, political, and business networks. And they are not exclusively peopled by Republicans, either.

All of this is why Whitehouse's membership is making waves; people are right to be outraged that a sitting U.S. Senator belongs to an all-white club, even that an all-white club exists at all in 2021. It should go without saying that both are unacceptable.

But it also should not come as a surprise. That a Democratic politician would put access to wealth and power above racial equality is only shocking if you think wealthy capitalists have your best interest at heart. No matter if there is a D or an R in front of their name, capital is gonna capital.

Despite their lofty rhetoric, expecting wealthy white liberals to change the systems of power which benefit them is a fool's errand.

It's not surprising to me that Sheldon Whitehouse, the scion of a wealthy and prominent New England family, would belong to a club like this and see no problem with it. It's how people like him have kept power for more than a century—or, as he says, "a long tradition."

And of course, he's not alone. The concept of the "limousine liberal" is nothing new; it has been used effectively by opponents on the Right and Left to highlight Democratic elitism. Back in the 1970s, White Bostonians attacked then-Senator Edward Kennedy for his perceived hypocrisy on bussing, pointing out the blue-blooded Kennedy sent his kids to private schools rather than integrated schools. And the classism of elite liberals has in the intervening years found more subtle expressions, such as former President Barack Obama's infamous words about working class voters in the Rustbelt who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Democrats seem increasingly willing to fight battles that benefit a new, highly educated base, rather than their working class voters of yore. It's undeniable at this point: Folks like Sheldon Whitehouse do not have the same interests as my white working class Appalachian family, just as they don't have the same interests of Black working class people. Even if Bailey's Beach diversified its members now, it wouldn't change the lives of the vast majority of Black people in this country who would still be prohibited from joining based on the cost alone. Sounds like a hollow victory to me.

No matter how many platitudes and mantras they may repeat, wealthy white liberals are, at the end of the day, wealthy and white. Their interests are not the same as those of us in the working class.

Obviously it is disgusting that a segregated club—whether by policy or by practice—exists in the 21st century. I am appalled, as everyone should be. It's a huge problem that Bailey's Beach Club's membership isn't diverse enough. But it's also a problem that it exists at all.

My .02: Again, SW is a White Male Democrat. We are going to get an avalanche of absolutely meaningless words etc. Six months from now, Whitehouse will still be Senator. He will, of course, still be a member of Bailey's Beach Club. Nothing will have changed at all and nothing ever will. 

Sheldon Whitehouse and his Elitist White Male Democrat friends are so far above those of of us in the fly-over country that nothing has touched them in the last 140 years or so and nothing ever will. Of course there will be several sycophantic ass kissers here that will never admit what is plainly in front of their eyes. They will dole out another half a dozen or so facepalms and thumbs-downs because I am rocking their little Elitist prig-boat. And we will go on, and nothing will ever change...Northam, CuomoX2, etc all say hi...

[jj3jordan 2,056]

Well they did force all of their black/dark/female/gay/Native American/Hispanic/Asian candidates to drop out of the race almost overnite after polling showed that only the elderly rich bigoted hair sniffing fondling corrupt plagiarizing blackmailing quid pro quo pro baby murdering devout catholic white guy could win. That’s progressive for you.

Edited June 23, 2021 by jj3jordan

[DKW 86 7,433]

20 minutes ago, jj3jordan said:

Well they did force all of their black/dark/female/gay/Native American/Hispanic/Asian candidates to drop out of the race almost overnite after polling showed that only the elderly rich bigoted hair sniffing fondling corrupt plagiarizing blackmailing quid pro quo pro baby murdering devout catholic white guy could win. That’s progressive for you.

Do not agree with all that, but there is an element of truth there. As a Bernie Supporter, I was and am pissed that the Elitist prigs chose Biden for all of us. It really didnt matter who was running or how the voting was going. If the voting showed BS winning, well, that new app was the problem. BS was not a true Dem and that was a legitimate issue too. 

[TexasTiger 12,969]

Exceptionally dumb response by Whitehouse.  No White House for him.

[DKW 86 7,433]

12 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

Exceptionally dumb response by Whitehouse.  No White House for him.

He is still going to be a member of Baileys Whites Only Beach Club AND a US Senator

[AU9377 5,001]

There are many Jewish country clubs across the country. Country clubs, by their very nature, are limited to the wealthy and connected members of the business community.  I don't know anything other than what was written about about this particular beach club.  I will say that there is a big difference between being "whites only" as a rule and a club that happens to have only white members.  I have been to several traditional clubs in Atlanta and New Orleans.  They have minority members, but those members would be the first to admit that they don't want the process for deciding membership to change.  I once worked for a founding member of the Cherokee Club in Atlanta.  He was a wonderful man.  He often laughed about the fact that he contributed $10,000 decades ago, when that was a large amount of money and for that his membership was paid for his lifetime. He would have never paid the hundred thousand dollars and up that is costs today.  The fact that he was a member of the club should not be taken as some sort of proof that he was racist or elitist.  He wasn't.    I think that it is dangerous to assume that about anyone.  I also think that we should be careful when we start making assumptions about people based on their membership in an organization.

[DKW 86 7,433]

2 hours ago, AU9377 said:

There are many Jewish country clubs across the country. Country clubs, by their very nature, are limited to the wealthy and connected members of the business community.  I don't know anything other than what was written about about this particular beach club.  I will say that there is a big difference between being "whites only" as a rule and a club that happens to have only white members.  I have been to several traditional clubs in Atlanta and New Orleans.  They have minority members, but those members would be the first to admit that they don't want the process for deciding membership to change.  I once worked for a founding member of the Cherokee Club in Atlanta.  He was a wonderful man.  He often laughed about the fact that he contributed $10,000 decades ago, when that was a large amount of money and for that his membership was paid for his lifetime. He would have never paid the hundred thousand dollars and up that is costs today.  The fact that he was a member of the club should not be taken as some sort of proof that he was racist or elitist.  He wasn't.    I think that it is dangerous to assume that about anyone.  I also think that we should be careful when we start making assumptions about people based on their membership in an organization.

dude, love you man but STHU. the last things anyone in America needs today is more crazy old men in exclusionary clubs. 

[AU9377 5,001]

2 hours ago, DKW 86 said:

dude, love you man but STHU. the last things anyone in America needs today is more crazy old men in exclusionary clubs. 

LOL.... I agree that we don't need them.  I just don't believe that their membership in a club is indicative of bad character in some way.  Some people are born into that culture much like others are born into running a farm.  On a personal level, there is no way in hell that I would spend the amount of money required to be in one of those clubs.  However, if my membership was paid by an employer or someone else, turning down those connections wouldn't be very smart.  There will always be people with wealth.  The problem today is that the extremely wealthy have increased their wealth ten fold while the middle class gets poorer.

[DKW 86 7,433]

I wouldnt even join if it was paid. I got my ass out of a club when I was living in Selma. My boss paid for my membership and wrote them and broke my tie to that club.

[augolf1716 21,249]

6 hours ago, AU9377 said:

Cherokee Club

Wow what a golf course especially the north course....that place is very exclusive. I was lucky to get on a few times. Now Peachtree Club is a totally difference story

[AU9377 5,001]

2 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

Wow what a golf course especially the north course....that place is very exclusive. I was lucky to get on a few times. Now Peachtree Club is a totally difference story

It is a beautiful place for sure.  In fact, it was rated as one of the top 5 clubs in the United States in 2018 and number 22 in the world by Forbes magazine.  I'm not sure if anything has changed or not, but 10 years ago they had a few different levels of membership.  The "membership deposit", which was a non-refundable fee to be placed on the waiting list for a junior membership after an invitation is issued by the club ,was $50,000.  Of course, in order to have the privilege of paying this amount, you had to be nominated by a member and issued an invitation by the membership committee. You could then begin paying your yearly dues of approx $8,000 to $10,000, give or take, based on whether you planned on using dining privileges and the club house.  The club would then take a few years to get to know the junior member before inviting him to become a full member.  If that invitation was forthcoming, another payment of approx $200,000 would be required.

Capital City is another. 

[DKW 86 7,433]

somehow yall are missing the "hell no" here 

Edited June 25, 2021 by DKW 86

[AU9377 5,001]

1 hour ago, DKW 86 said:

somehow yall are missing thehell no here 

LOL - I'm with ya on that man.  They are beautiful places though nonetheless.