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| Race And Gender In Politics
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February 26 2008
In the media, much has been made of the fact that the next President of The United States might be an African American man or a woman. Some people have gone on record as saying that race prejudice and gender bias are no longer major issues in American politics. These people are premature for a number of reasons:
1. Only the Democratic Party has a black man and a woman who are serious contenders for the presidential nomination. Among Republicans, only white Protestant males need apply.
2. Being nominated is not the same as being elected. Between now and the November election, you can expect to hear and see some ugly racist or sexist remarks on the Internet and elsewhere, depending on whether Obama or Clinton gets chosen.
3. America has always been a very conservative nation and voters may pay lip service to change, then opt for a conventional white male candidate like McCain, once they are in the privacy of the voting booth.
In Canada, we have four political parties and only one (The Green Party) has a female leader. We had a woman Prime Minister for a couple of months during 1993, but she was set up by the resigning Conservative Party leader who knew his party was about to be slaughtered in the pending election. The Conservatives went from 190 seats to 2. Needless to say, there hasn't been much talk of female leadership in the party since then. Canadian political parties have a history of running female candidates as sacrificial lambs in ridings that they expect to lose anyway. That makes it easy to say that women just don't have the stuff to win in elections.
When will we know that racism and sexism are behind us? When the color or gender of the winning candidate is no longer worth mentioning. If the next US President or Canadian Prime Minister happens to be the first one in history to have blue eyes, the media probably won't talk about it much. Eye color isn't considered an important issue in regards to public office. Apparently, skin color or the shape of the candidate's genitals still is.
What do you think? Have we moved beyond racism and sexism?
George
For some free fiction, visit my web page at: www.checkmatefiction.com
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Posted by gjcondon on 2008-02-26 14:06:09 | Rating: | Views: 132
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Well, I will maybe fill in a few facts that are lacking in your analysis:
-Most belived that the first woman or black would come from the right. They were wrong, at least in one case it seems, BUT there have been a few women that the right wing of that party would have elected had age not been an issue. IE Jean Kirpatrick is a great example
I personally would vote for Gen Powell in a second, or Clarence Thomas. Neither will run but they are both respected Republicans.
-When you are in a two party system that only gave either of those groups the vote less than a 100 years ago, it takes time. Only 2 people every four years...when you have 4 or 5 or 10 parties, then you have more chance.
-Do not be stunned if McCain picks a certain woman from Texas as his VP. And unlike Walter Mondale who did his VP pick as a gimmick in a dieing campaign, McCain has a shot. So maybe juuuusssttt maybe the first woman President will be a Republican and if MCCain wins, who knows, maybe the first minority President too in 4 years
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Posted by whiteknight
on 2008-02-27 12:17:32
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whitenight
Interesting response. We'll have to wait and see how things play out.
George
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Posted by gjcondon
on 2008-02-27 19:38:31
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