Country Club Republicans
The Party’s Bad Snob Image
By Daniel Muniz

In my hometown of San Antonio Texas, I was browsing the Republican Party of Bexar Country web site. It contained links of the local grass roots organizations in the city and it listed the times and places where they regularly have their meetings. I did notice one commonality that many of these organizations shared.

• The Bexar County Republican Women regularly meets at the Club at Sonterra.

Located in the fairly new upscale part of town known as Stone Oak, Sonterra is its ritziest and most expensive neighborhood and it is definitely a place for new money residents. I have never set foot inside the Club of Sonterra but I imagine that it must be an exclusive posh country club since it typically garners a lot of publicity on the national events held there. According to their web site, you cannot just pay a membership fee to this join this country club; you have to nominated and sponsored by a current member.

• The Alamo City Republican Women regularly meets at the Oak Hills Country Club.

This organization had the following footnote: Frequently we change due to golf tournaments at the country club so be sure to check the calendar.

I would imagine that this country club is more of an old money type of facility since it has a proud heritage and a long lineage of being one of the city’s older golf courses. Again, I have never set foot in there and the web site to that country club doesn’t say what you have to do to become a member.

• The Republican Business Women of Bexar County regularly meets at the San Antonio Country Club.

In my hometown, most of the old money residents live in a zip code that has the last two numbers of 09. Anyone who lives there is often referred to as Oh-Niners and in San Antonio it typically means someone who is well off from old money or who lives in one of the older but grander houses of the city. This country club is definitely a classy place and a quick Google search shows that they are also serious about golf.

But unlike the Club at Sonterra and the Oak Hills Country Club, finding their web site took a little bit of effort. And when I finally did locate it, it was just the home page (http://www.sanantoniocc.com) and that’s it. Except for a picture of the front entrance of their swanky clubhouse (as shown below), they have no links to a description, history, or to any other information about becoming a member. At least the other country clubs were a bit descriptive about themselves and proud of it instead of being stingy about whom they are.

Now where do the men and everybody else in the GOP meet?

The Republican Men’s Club of Bexar County regularly meets at the Water Street Oyster Bar and so do other GOP groups.

At the Water Street Oyster Bar, you don’t need a membership card and just about anybody would be welcomed. I have never been there before but that is because I have always lived in the suburbs so it is a bit of a drive to the older part of San Antonio. But truthfully speaking, the restaurant is too pricy for my wallet so if I ever did go there for a Republican meeting, I would probably just order a glass of tea.

Thinking back, perhaps it was the Republican Men’s Club but years ago I do remember another Republican organization meeting at the Old San Francisco Steakhouse which is definitely out of my price range. I did eat there once in which I had a very good steak but somebody else paid for it.

However, the common thread is that in my city, the Republican Party does not go out of its way to dispel the notion that they are a country club WASP organization. Although there are plenty of Hispanics involved, the party still has a country club image which invites plenty of criticism. That doesn’t mean that Democrats do not know how to live high on the hog because they also have banquets and special events at expensive hotels and upscale restaurants although the local media hardly ever covers that while they pounce at Republicans events (click here to see what I mean).

The big difference is that the Dems don’t mind regularly holding meetings at places where beans and cheese tacos are served even if it is somewhere in the barrio. And they obviously don’t mind sitting next to someone who makes a living doing manual labor. Sadly, that is not the case with too many Republicans in my county (and across the country). By regularly meeting in country clubs or at expensive restaurants, the Party places itself out of reach from the common man especially in a city that has a larger number of low wage earners.

Of course, not all Republicans are country clubbers even though it seems that way in San Antonio and elsewhere. Religious conservatives like the Christian Coalition are very active in my hometown. And Joe Sixpack would definitely not feel out of place with hunters, gun enthusiasts, retired military (San Antonio is also known as Military City USA and has one of the highest enlistments in the country), and other large groups of culturally conservative people who do not play golf.

Unfortunately, this snobbery has alienated too many people that might be open to a conservative message. But more to the point, just because you hang out at a country club and play golf does not necessarily make you conservative. I realize that the media loves rich liberals and they do not question their opulent wealth but the reality is that wealthy Democrats already know how to play the game of politics. They know how to present themselves as defenders of the poor and of the planet while enjoying an extravagant and wasteful lifestyle.

If the GOP wants to make itself more accessible to the common man, they have to start acting like the common man. The country clubs gives the Party a bad image and they present a barrier to hardworking culturally conservative people who would like to become more active in local politics.

It is time for county party chairpersons to encourage local Republican organizations to ditch the country clubs by making the party more open to Joe Sixpack and to the people who don’t play golf. Today, there is a disconnect between the rank and file and the Republican leadership and the 2006 elections reflect that. If the GOP wants to close the gap and start winning more elections, they have to tune in to the pulse of the electorate and understand what the common man really wants.

Any opinions or views expressed herein belong solely to the author and does not represent any employer, organization, political party, governmental agency, or any other entity and do not necessarily reflect the views of the site owner or its participants.