A diverse Democratic duo
Posted by offthetrack on March 12, 2008
Diversity’s toll on this election may change history forever. It’s taken over 200 years for someone other than a white man to even be nominated for a presidency and now in 2008, we have both an African American and a woman in the running for the Democratic nomination. Senior Ayanna H. says: “Times are changing…this would have NEVER happened 25…50…100 years ago. It’s a good thing that people are becoming less closed minded and are voting based on the candidate’s overall goals and not omitting them due to sex/race/gender/etc.” Democrats must now decide which candidate they wish to support, and for some, this will be a harder decision than others.
As the most historical election in history, Americans are now forced to choose between the conservative white man and one of the diverse Democratic duo. America has been quite bland in its presidential choices, but this year, we are far from that. These candidates have put themselves in the middle of an election that is quite intriguing. The big competition right now is between Clinton and Obama, who will continue to fight for the primaries to see who will be the Democrat’s nominee for president.
As a woman in today’s society, one would only imagine that many feel relieved to know that the United States has finally started to accept a woman’s abilities. Hillary Clinton has proved that women can be just as determined and successful as men, and has caught the attention of men and women alike. Her success has become eminent throughout this election and the only thing stopping her from going all the way is her young yet popular competitor, Barack Obama. Junior Eleanor O. believes “that this is an exciting point in history, and an important one. It’s long overdue,” she says, “that while women have been able to vote for almost a century, she is our first serious contender.” Clinton has proved that although she is a woman, she is no less of a competitor than the men running, but is America ready to let its country be ruled by a woman?
While it became quite clear that Democrats around the McGehee campus were completely ecstatic about the Democratic candidates, Republicans seemed to be a lot less intrigued. Not getting much feedback from them made it hard to believe that they were as into the Democratic candidates. Junior and Republican Megan M. said: “I would love to see a woman or an African American president if they were different candidates.” While it seems hard for almost anyone to deny that these elections are quite historical, it’s understandable that it’s not as exciting when it doesn’t involve one’s own party.
These candidates have created options that were never open until now. As the election gets closer, it will be interesting to see which Democratic candidate catches the eyes of America. While it’s certain that one of the candidates will be something new for America, one must wonder, are people voting on him or her because of their originality, or is it the overall goals that remain important?
