People Get Ready

Maryland Conservatarian says he was being tongue in cheek with his earlier post on diversity and the Democratic Party. Fair enough; although given the frequency with which conservatives have taunted the Democrats for preaching diversity but not practicing it (the Steele campaign provided a wealth of examples), one could be forgiven for taking him at his word.

Of course, the whole question, "Is America ready for a black/woman/Latino/etc. President?" is rather silly. Press coverage of elections, however, is a constant search for novelty and drama, so talk about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is plagued by the "significance" of electing either one, to the detriment of talking about their actual policies. Hopefully, when we get closer to the primaries, we'll see a more substantive discussion come to the fore in the traditional media. (It's already happening on the Web.)

On the other hand, given the history of gender (and especially race) relations in this country, electing non-white or non-male President would undoubtedly mark a turning point in our history. After all, it's not as if the exploitation of prejudice is that far in our past.

Tags: maryland race gender hilary clinton barack obama democrats