Country Club Whit
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 60-69 |
| Home | Darien, CT |
| Demographic | white, retired finance, Episcopalian |
| Lean | Lean Republican |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Country Club Chip |
| Successor | Country Club Craig |
Whit is a retired Wall Street bond trader and an Episcopal vestryman in Fairfield County. He is a Northeast establishment Republican who favours low taxes, free trade and a clean Long Island Sound, and he is embarrassed by his party's deficit and its religious wing.
Who they stand for
Moderate Northeast Republicans decline sharply across the decade. Their congressmen lose their seats one by one until Chris Shays, defeated in 2008, becomes the last House Republican from New England, and John McCain, their favoured candidate, loses the 2000 primary to the man he later serves. Their objections are fiscal and temperamental rather than ideological. The budget surplus of 2000 becomes a deficit by 2002, the 2003 prescription-drug benefit passes without funding, Donald Rumsfeld's war in Iraq goes wrong, Congress intervenes in the Terri Schiavo case in 2005, and a Pennsylvania school board litigates teaching intelligent design. Fairfield County buries dozens of commuters killed in the September 11 attacks, which makes residents support military action for about a year before that support fades. The 2008 crash damages their savings and their old firms' reputations, and they are confused when the party lets Lehman Brothers fail and then denounces the rescue.
The man himself stays much the same across the three generations of this line, but the Republican Party changes around him. Chip loses his wing of the party to Pat Buchanan. Whit supports George W. Bush and then loses confidence in him. Craig votes for Donald Trump only reluctantly.
Playing to them
Whit responds well to a balanced budget, entitlement reform, free-trade agreements, legal immigration, conservation and a war conducted by competent people. He tolerates civil unions and stem-cell research, and he would rather religion did not enter politics at all. A fiscally serious Democrat can win his vote. He backs Joe Lieberman as an independent candidate for the Senate in 2006, and he judges a president much as he once judged a bond, by whether the numbers add up.
He does not forgive a budget deficit, a tariff, a Schiavo-style intervention by Congress, an endorsement of intelligent design, or a populist campaign against Wall Street from either party. Winning his support on trade costs the support of Chattanooga Travis and Janesville Gary. Winning his support by distancing a candidate from the religious right's embarrassments costs the support of Megachurch Heather and Jasper Faye. Milwaukee Marcus, Protest Paige and Sister Loretta see his budget discipline as an agenda that serves business owners rather than workers. Startup Seth is a natural ally on economic matters, although the two men differ sharply in manner and style.
Where they live
The five states where Country Club Whit makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- Connecticut
- New Jersey
- New Hampshire
- Delaware
- Pennsylvania
Lineage
Country Club Chip → Country Club Whit → Country Club Craig
The one line where the man does not change and the party does. In every decade he is fiscally conservative, for free trade, indifferent to social issues, and embarrassed by the populists and the religious right. Chip's wing of the party loses to Buchanan. Whit's has Bush and loses him over the deficit and the Christian right. Craig's has Trump and votes for him reluctantly. The same reluctant Republican vote three times.