America is not ready for an atheist, homosexual, Muslim, Hindu etc president.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

There's been a lot of debate inspired by the candidacies of Obama and Clinton about whether or not America would be willing to elect a black and/or female president, and if not whether that's a reason for the Democrats not to nominate one.

A lot of people have advanced the argument that arguing that America would be unwilling to elect a woman or black, or that nominating a therefore-unelectable candidate would be a mistake, is inherently, in and of itself, sexist or racist.

I think that this argument is foolish - it's just shooting the messenger - but I'm hampered in the extent to which I can oppose it by the fact that I think that neither being female nor being black would make a candidate unelectable, and that I do therefor slightly question the motives of people who argue otherwise.

To make the point, therefor, I think the best thing to do is to point out that there are all sorts of other categories of people who would, through no fault of their own, be completely unelectable - America will not, in the forseeable future, elect an atheist, a homosexual, or a Muslim as president; it almost certainly wouldn't vote for anyone else who isn't a Christian or conceivably a Jew; anyone with Mexican heritage would be at a massive disadvantage in a presidential election, as would anyone whose first language wasn't English.

And as such, any of those things is, sadly, a legitimate reason to oppose someone in a primary.

And there's nothing in any way bigotted about pointing that out.

[demnan]

1. Hell people won't even vote for someone

ugly and short in this country. Even though he has the best policies.

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. Just wait a couple of days

I'm sure Skinner isn't done with his polemicals yet. Looks like he's got about five more to go :P

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. I'm beginning to think that if they keep selling Obama like spiderman

it won't matter. It'll matter later after he's in office.

[Bitwit1234]

4. Stop bashing Hillary calling her all those names

Oh gee....you mean she doesn't iron shirts.

[Sulawesi]

5. Atheists poll lower than all minorities (Jews, Af. Americans, homosexuals, etc) by a large margin

Now THAT makes no sense to me...

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. The Christian right feels more threatened by them.

Other religions are playing by the same game. Atheists refuse to play, and that disturbs and enrages, and possibly scares, them.

[readmoreoften]

6. I don't think America has the culture for a female president, but I do think it does for a Black one

There is no workable prototype for a female authority figure other than mother. And we will not elect our mother as president. We only have three positive modes for interpreting females: the maternal archetype, the sexual archetype, and the lesbian archetype (the repository for all non-traditional womanhood or feminism that the culture doesn't understand.)

On the other hand, a male African-American president would be the fulfillment of the myth of the American Dream, a myth more important to conservatives than even their own racism. In fact, it is the culmination of their racism. In their minds, a Black president will prove that racism has ended in the United States. Forget affirmative action. Forget New Orleans. Forget urban poverty. Forget Black male incarceration rates.

By voting for a Black man, white America will find easy absolution for its sins and a permanent solution to its guilt. By voting for a woman, American males get no similar pay off.

I'm afraid that when Obama becomes a human being rather than a symbol--when America finds out that he used drugs like Bush or cheated on his wife like Clinton or wrote a bad check or yelled at his neighbor--all those racial narratives will come flooding back. Or (as with the Obama "Black-Church" meme) when Obama seems a little too supportive of the Black community (or even gives the black community with the same amount of consideration as a progressive white democrat would) he will suddenly be "a reverse-racist! an agent of subversion!"

I do see white America desperately wanting to vote for a Black candidate. I don't see white America letting him be anything other than a symbol.

(I'm not a Hillary supporter, point of clarity)

[Jim Lane]

7. You mean America won't elect anyone who's OPENLY atheist (or LGBT)

Transsexual would be impossible to conceal, and lesbian-gay-bisexual would be hard to conceal; rumors tend to fly.

But atheism and agnosticism are different. I wouldn't be surprised if some prominent politicians have, over the years, come to reject the religious beliefs in which they were raised, but have continued to attend services and to describe themselves as members of that denomination because doing so is politically advantageous.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. Lincoln would be a case in point

I believe as a young man he wrote a paper questioning the existence of God, which was suppressed when he sought political office. He attended church, but never joined any church. He had to be encouraged to add phrases dealing with God into his speeches.

[Mr. McD]

9. William Howard Taft was not a christian

He was a Unitarian.

There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach -- it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.
-- William Howard Taft, address, December 20, 1914, from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom

President Taft: Not a Christian I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe. - William Howard Taft, letter to Yale University, on turning down an offer for its presidency, quoted from James A Haught, "Breaking the Last Taboo" (1996)