Feb 01 2009
Which Political Party Does a Better Job of Breaking Social Barriers in Presidential Politics?
In light of last year’s historic election, I’ve been thinking a lot about the Democrats and Republicans and what they have done to advance the cause of progress in terms of breaking religious, racial, and sexual barriers in presidential races.
Which political party do you feel has done a better job of this, historically speaking?
I say the Democrats. This isn’t to say I think the Democratic Party is better than the GOP. In fact, I think the latter has had more great members throughout its history. But when it comes to breaking those glass ceilings, the Democrats have done a better job.
Consider these facts:
In the 1928 election, Alfred E. Smith, Jr. became the first Roman Catholic to run for president on a major party ticket. Unfortunately, anti-Catholic sentiment played a part in Smith’s humiliating defeat to Republican Herbert Hoover.
32 years later, another Catholic, John F. Kennedy, would run for president as a Democrat and become the first member of his faith to win the White House.
In 2004, the Democrats would run yet another Catholic, John F. Kerry, for president. In a weird historical twist, Kerry would lose the Catholic vote to Republican George W. Bush in part because certain influential members of that particular church felt he “wasn’t Catholic enough.”
The Republicans have yet to put a Roman Catholic at the top of a presidential ticket. They did, however, run the first Catholic vice presidential candidate – William E. Miller, who ran with Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election.
In 1928, the Republicans selected Kansas Senator Charles Curtis to run with Hoover in that year’s election. Curtis was half-Indian and remains the only person of Native American ancestry to run on a major party ticket.
In the 1984 election, Democratic candidate Walter Mondale made Geraldine Ferraro the first female to run for vice president. The Republicans would not put a woman on a presidential ticket until John McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008.
In the 2000 election, Joe Lieberman became the first Jew to run on a major party ticket when Al Gore made him his running mate. As of this date, no Jew has run on a GOP ticket in any capacity.
In 2008, Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, became the first serious female contender for a major party’s presidential nomination. Although she narrowly lost, Clinton brought hope to many women across America – or so the media says.
How many women have come this close to becoming the Republican Party’s nominee? You guessed it right: Zero.
And as everyone knows, in the 2008 election, Barack Obama became the second African-American to become a nominee for a major political party, and he went on to win the presidency. The first, of course, was Bill Clinton.
How many blacks have the Republicans run for president so far? You guessed it right again: Zippo
This isn’t really anything new. The Republicans have been the old, white guy party since its very beginning, and it’s exactly this stereotype that will lead to the party’s almost complete dismemberment in 2010. Though to be fair, we can let them claim Joe Lieberman as their token Jew.
“This isn’t really anything new.”
Yeah, I know. Sometimes I get into my “pointless history trivia” mood and like to display my useless knowledge.
“The Republicans have been the old, white guy party since its very beginning”
Actually, the GOP used to be the more racially progressive party up until the New Deal. It was the Democrats who used racial divisions and even violence and most blacks voted Republican and held office as Republicans in the South until they were driven out by the Klan during Reconstruction. The divorce between the black electorate and the GOP wasn’t really final until the 1964 election when the White South began to move into the Republican column for good.
“and it’s exactly this stereotype that will lead to the party’s almost complete dismemberment in 2010.”
Uh-huh. As much as may want to believe thats going to happen, it ain’t. No party stays at the top forever. The GOP will come back in 2010 or 2012. It’s just the ebb and flow of democracy.
“Though to be fair, we can let them claim Joe Lieberman as their token Jew.”
Actually, I think Rep. Eric Cantor takes that title, being the only Jewish Republican in the House and probably the only Jewish conservative anywhere.
I love how now all of a sudden the republicans are trying to play catch up, which gives all of their non-old rich white male members a taint of being tokens, even if they’re not.
Nice article. This is growing into a competition as to which party can best adjust to the changing times. It is just what we need right now to face the challenges of the 21st Century.
Oh man i wish the libertarian party would take the repubs place. It’d be like… a party with conservative values that (hopefully) stayed on track with those conservative values. It would make so much sense…