Reply to Preppy/"Old" Money DC - tell me everything

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We've attended a bunch of private school admissions events this fall, and I'm getting my first glimpse into a VERY distinct preppy / wasp-y crowd. They're not really Cave Dwellers (although surely some of their parents and grand-parents were) -- very few seem to work for the administration or in the government. In fact, they seem apolitical unless you count wearing a Barbour jacket as a religion. The most common threads I've been able to discern is that most are white and either from DC or the South, they all know each other well, and even though I know there are other exclusive country clubs out there, they are basically all members of the Chevy Chase Club. Who are these people: where is the money from, how were they raised, and how do they spend their time?[/quote]

My dear interlocutor,

Your inquiry reads like the field notes of a well-intentioned ethnographer who has wandered, quite by accident, into a habitat populated by that curious American subspecies: the Modern Metropolitan WASP, a creature neither as endangered nor as monolithic as the folklore would have one believe.

You observe, quite astutely, that these individuals do not conform to the old “Cave Dweller” archetype—those laconic Brahmins who once glided between Kalorama, the Cosmos Club, and the Wilson administration without ever disturbing a single pleat of their seersucker. No, today’s iteration is far more diffused, and—dare I say—more democratic in its pedigree, though they will never admit as much.

The money, as you ask, tends to emerge from the same three tributaries that have nourished this class since the Coolidge administration:

Legacy wealth, discreetly laundered through trusts so ancient they predate the Internal Revenue Code;

“Quiet” corporate success—defense contractors, regional banking families, clever people who own unpleasantly lucrative logistics companies; and

The New Southern Gentry, who discovered sometime in the Reagan era that Washington was the perfect place to winter both their fortunes and their children.

As for how they were raised, one must picture the sort of childhood in which manners are taught before multiplication tables, and where the great moral transgressions of youth consist not in rebellion per se, but in wearing boat shoes before Memorial Day or failing to write a prompt thank-you note to Aunt Eloise for the monogrammed stationery she bestowed.

They were reared on a diet of Episcopalian restraint, tennis lessons, laconic summer camps in Maine, and a vaguely stoic orientation toward life that insists one never—ever—acknowledge ambition while privately tending to it with horticultural precision.

And how they spend their time now?
Well, were you to plot their existence on a calendar, the coordinates would be familiar:

September through November: school admissions events, performed like ritual courtship dances;

Weekends: lacrosse or squash, depending on latitude;

Holidays: dutiful pilgrimages to the ancestral home, often a clapboard structure in the Carolinas containing more portraits of stern-looking ancestors than modern appliances;

Summers: a rotation between Nantucket, the Outer Banks, and a lake somewhere in New Hampshire whose name you would never know unless born into it.

They are not apolitical, mind you; they are post-political. To them, politics is something that happens on C-SPAN, not the dining room table. Their chosen parties are not elephants or donkeys but rather the Chevy Chase Club, the Sulgrave, and—for the truly cosmopolitan—the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In sum, these are people who navigate life with the serene confidence of those who assume—often correctly—that the world will continue to be upholstered in their preferred fabric.

I admire your curiosity. Observe them closely. They are, after all, one of America’s last reliably performing cultural ecosystems.[/quote]

You sound maybe older? The current reputation of Chevy and Met is not elite. They are known to be Maga havens and the families I know that belong there are all from Texas, Midwest, Florida etc... I can not think of anyone from New England or Northeast elite families.

The Cosmos is intellectual and elite and has a lot more old money WASP families.

Sorry your view is not just accurate or realistic. [/quote]

You don’t know enough people and are not a member of any of the clubs.  Don’t speculate from the sidelines, it’s pure foolishness.  [/quote]

You couldn't be more wrong. [/quote]

You deal in 3rd party speculation and traffic in the unsubstantiated opinions of others.  [/quote]

No 2 neighbors and my in laws belong and have all expressed displeasure with the trajectory. They rarely use it. We along with other friends - all Ivy alums and old Northeast/New England old money have all decided to join other clubs and are quite happy there. We did not apply to above clubs. [/quote]

I have been associated for years and decades through my family and there have been some changes but there are still descendants of those who have been seen as “leading families” for generations.  There are also people who are descendants of Tuxedo Park and other northern establishment areas.  What has changed is that there are now more Catholics and Jewish people at these places.  The overall memberships are probably more accomplished and certainly more wealthy ( all of DC is) than in the past too.

What I suspect is that the pp’s neighbors and in-laws are cut from the in-bred racist cloth that did dominate those clubs years and years ago and hence the “trajectory” doesn’t work for them anymore.   [/quote]

Nope. The neighbors are liberal and elite Northeastern and New England families. They don’t like the blackballing and group mentality described above to not allow certain people in while at the same time easily supporting others who have much worse behavior. They also don’t like the Maga takeover. Maga is a different sort of politic. [/quote]

There were far more Trump Admin officials in 2016 -20 than now.  Far more. So even this aspect is belied by reality.  [/quote]

There were more Trump Officials in T45 reign that were not tattooed rednecks, hillbillies, really ugly, or all 3.[/quote]

I know about 15-20 families that all are very public/vocal supporters of Maga that live in Spring Valley, Kent, Wesley Heights area and they all belong to Chevy and also some to either Met or Sulgrave. This is not a secret. [/quote]

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