>Of course an "asp" isn't entirely a pleasant creature, so that would have worked too.

At the risk of "obviousizing" (how's that for moving back to the vicinity of the original topic) the Brookhiser quote, I think that Professor Baltzell purposefully chose the "White" in WASP to not only make a waspish acronym, but to add emphasis to the *white part of the equation. (I'm factoring here :) Actually, Baltzell (who died about four years ago) coined the phrase without irony. He described himself as a conservative (but not a rightist) and said that he believed in meritocracy and that the US has become a "classless" (emphasis on the lowercase) society. "I am for leveling upwards instead of leveling downwards. Lincoln said, 'You can be as good as I am.'" Baltzell complained about how today's leaders want everybody to be the same, as mediocre as one another.

I'll only add that I write this nothwithstanding the way in which some use and understand WASP today.

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