Zooropa
Acrobat
I find it sad that as an acknowledged atheist, I, or any other atheist, could never be elected President of the US. Regardless of my ideas, it just would never happen. Anyone agree??
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Achtung Bubba said:It's similarly unlikely that the U.S. would elect a Jew, Greek Orthodox, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu...
So your point is what, exactly?
Does it take a person who fits a certain demographic profile to represent that demographic? Would it take a blind president to represent the blind? Or a former second-grade teacher to represent teachers? Or a black man to represent blacks?
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you are right: at the moment, the U.S. would never elect an atheist to the White House. I see three alternatives for those who find this unacceptable:
- Do nothing, and continuing bemoaning the state of things until the day you pass away.
- Push for some way to circumvent the deomcratic process (because, after all, its the people's fault that they wouldn't elect an atheist).
- Or start working to change people's minds - not by telling them that they need to elect an atheist because he's an atheist, but by demonstrating that it's a non-issue.
After all, Colin Powell didn't become the Secretary of State by bemoaning the fact that a black was unlikely to serve such a high office: he worked to show that he was among the VERY best qualified for the position. And in the end, very few have questioned that Bush (a Republican!) chose him on the basis of the content of his character, not the color of his skin.
Zooropa said:Well we almost elected A Jew as Vice-President, so it may not be out of the question that we may one day elect a Jewish President. I was not looking for a solution, more a consensus of opinion, I'm well aware of the situations you brough forth as possible solutions. Gimme a little credit, I'm not a moron. I agree that if it were to happen, it would need to be a non-issue. However, your comparison to Powell is off base and an entirely different set of circumstances.
Achtung Bubba said:It's similarly unlikely that the U.S. would elect a Hindu...
adamswildhoney said:I wonder when there will ever be a woman or an African-American pres. I dont think that will ever happen.
melon said:I find it improbable that the U.S. will ever elect anyone who isn't a white Protestant male nowadays. We have to deal with the bigot vote bloc you know...
Melon
speedracer said:The only bigots I ever met were kids.
Kids don't vote.
speedracer said:I grew up in Michigan as well.
I'm Korean.
The only bigots I ever met were kids.
Kids don't vote.
Lilly said:
yeah, because 18 year old males are SO mature....it's ok though, because we can ship them off to war, so we might as well make 18 year olds feel like they can do something by giving them the right to vote for people who don't do anything for them but take away from their social security and then raise tuition and don't even bother representing us...but hey, get out there and vote kids!
speedracer said:
Um...you might want to loosen your headphones and turn down the volume a bit. Rage Against The Machine isn't good for you if you're injecting it that deep into your ear canal.
Achtung Bubba said:It's similarly unlikely that the U.S. would elect a ...Greek...
The Wanderer said:I think it is a high probability that we've already had a President(s) who were atheistic; obviously none of them went on record as such, because it would be political suicide. So yes, I do think we will have atheist Presidents, if we haven't had them already, but only on the stipulation that they don't disclose this to anyone.