The Right Sells Access. The Left Sells Approval.
The women of Members Only: Palm Beach are hungry for everything the political Right serves up. What does this mean for Democrats?
“We have everything we could ever want. It’s about power.”
What sounds like a war cry, or a leaked text from a GOP Signal group, is actually pulled from Netflix’s Members Only: Palm Beach trailer. This quote neatly summarizes the motivation behind the protagonist of the show, millionaire Ro-Mina Ustayev, who upends her life to move from Philadelphia to Palm Beach in pursuit of power, in the form of a Mar-a-Lago membership.
Politics are never openly discussed on the show, but proximity to power is lusted for openly and often. In this show lies a case study about how eagerly the most well-resourced on the Right will bend to power in order to get in the same room as President Trump or Elon Musk, and the uniform of the Right reinforces the ideology. What can the Left learn from watching wealthy women radically transform themselves for access to Trump?
The bargain is clear. In exchange for access to President Trump and Elon Musk, Ro-Mina must accept isolation, xenophobia, and relentless scrutiny under Palm Beach’s strenuous social code. It’s not about wealth. It’s about what you have to do and how you have to look to amass power.
Members Only: Palm Beach follows Ro-Mina’s attempts to gain acceptance into a society of modest blondes with a preference for florals and pastels despite her own penchant for leather and yelling. Three Palm Beach veterans guide her metamorphosis: Rosalyn Yellin (a prominent philanthropist and former Zumba instructor), Gale Brophy (a socialite of the past with mysterious wealth), and Hilary Musser (a property developer celebrating wedding number five). Ro-Mina herself is a former healthcare executive, Uzbekistani immigrant, and aspiring singer/fashion designer. Each woman has embarked on a tremendous transformation to fit into Palm Beach society.
And now it’s Ro-Mina’s turn.
Ro-Mina’s wealth, which is enough to cover the $1 million cost of membership at Mar-a-Lago, does not make her social life any more bearable. Acceptance requires submission to “the Palm Beach way”. Ro-Mina is willing to learn and implement these standards, of which the most important is never showing your chest and legs at the same time, but finds true acceptance still out of reach. It seems new rules are created just for her - when she asks for cash instead of presents on her birthday, she’s chastised by each of her mentors. She shows off her new wardrobe often, but it’s the wrong material. Meanwhile, Ro-Mina’s mentors routinely violate the very rules they claimed were set in stone.
These contradictions are on purpose. The rules aren’t about looking or acting a certain way. They’re about deference to leadership in exchange for more invitations to ever-more enticing rooms
Ro-Mina Ustayev on IMDb
Throughout the season, Ro-Mina repeatedly and proudly shares her immigration story and attempts to merge her Uzbekistani heritage and culture with the customs of Palm Beach society. Instead, she is referred to as Pakistani and eventually, the tension reaches an all-time high when Ro-Mina is told to “go back to her own country” at an etiquette class by one of her mentors. But instead of backing down, she recommits to climbing the social hierarchy. While commenting that immigrants often take better advantage of American opportunity, she even imagines herself at the top of the ladder, leading the entire Palm Beach social scene in her own way. But that seems all but impossible while the old guard of Palm Beach continues to criticize and undermine Ro-Mina’s every move. It becomes clear that it just isn’t about the look, it’s the public display of reverence to the powerful that truly leads to acceptance and praise.
What Members Only Says about the Right – and Left — in this current moment
At Unfortunately Not a Sound Bath, we analyze and brainstorm on right-wing messaging and themes and convert them into actionable ideas to strengthen the Democratic approach. Members Only: Palm Beach showcases how the Right’s promise of power and personal celebrity is enticing enough to convince the wealthiest across America to upend their lives and relocate to Trump’s front door.
The political Right reinforces its power in a way that intensifies the loyalty of its aspirational believers. Conform and defer, and you’ll be rewarded with access, wealth, and validation.
The left mirrors these demands of conformance in less clear-cut ways. The left encourages diversity in image and slogan, but the rules of acceptable behavior are even more strict and numerous. Take the recent attempt to cancel Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers of the Las Culturistas podcast after they discouraged fans from donating to Jasmine Crockett’s campaign to flip Texas’ U.S. Senate seat. Backlash against this expression of diversity of thought as to where Democrat voters’ limited dollars should go quickly ensued.
Those of the left must display humility, tolerance, smarts, confidence, and charm in perfect form, across all demographics, at all times, to be considered marketable. Even then, the payoff still may not cover your ever-increasing rent.
If your goal is to tap the nearly endless resources of influence and cash of the right-wing elite, the decision to conform is easy. At least, it seems worth it to Ro-Mina. The later episodes justify her outer work by featuring a picture of her, floral-clad, next to the President and her mentor, with perfect smiles all around.
Those on the left gain status through a combination of virtue signals—empathy, compassion, collectivism. As evidenced in Members Only, the Right gains ground through a seemingly easy to follow guide to power. Follow the rules, you’ll be rewarded. The clarity is seductive.
If politics is downstream of culture, and culture is composed of group identity, then Members Only shows how the enforced styling of the Right sustains its worldview and prestige. They understand that power is something to be protected, not shared. Being easy to identify shows your dominance. They make the path to power legible, with clear messaging and visuals meant to go viral. Meanwhile, the left demands perfection and makes no promises for success.
The Right is selling access and the left is selling approval. We shouldn’t be surprised that one is much more persuasive. If Democrats want loyalty, they have to offer real, clear, and joyful incentives, not just moral righteousness. Otherwise, they will keep losing to people in pastels who know exactly what they’re dressing for.
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