Sunday, February 18, 2007

The End Of A Heterosexual Protestant White Male Privilege?

Many high profile bloggers have been commenting on the results of this USA Today/Gallup poll about the electability of people who not heterosexual, christian white males:


Conducted 2/9-11; surveyed 1006 adults; margin of error
+/- 3% (release, 2/16).


If Your Party Nominated A Generally Well-Qualified Candidate
For WH '08 Who Was ___, Would You Vote For That Person?

Yes No
Catholic 95% 4%
Black 94 5
Jewish 92 7
A woman 88 11
Hispanic 87 12
Mormon 72 24
Married for third time 67 30
72 years old 57 42
A homosexual 55 43
An atheist 45 53


Comfort- With Would
able Reserv- Not
ations Vote

Black 84% 9% 5%
A woman 78 10 11
Mormon 58 14 24
72 years old 43 15 42
Married for
third time 54 13 30



Clearly what this means is that being Black is more electable than being female,
which means that Hillary Rodham Clinton's run for the presidency is more groundbreaking than Barack Obama, not that I'm ranking oppressions hierarchically or
anything. However, I do believe that the percentage of respondents who would approve of a President from a certain historically subordinated group is a reasonable measure of societal acculturation and assimilation of that group.

Another interesting conclusion from the poll is that prominent Republican presidential hopefuls like Mitt Romney (A Mormon), Rudy Giuliani (Married 3 times), Newt Gingrich (Married 3 times) and John McCain (Born August 29, 1936) begin their campaigns with significant electoral deficits.

I believe this is the first poll where a majority of Americans polled said they would vote for a gay ("homosexual") presidential candidate. Of course, what voters tell pollsters and what they do in the privacy of the poll booth do not always correlate. Regardless, at least the little boy Justin (played by Mark Indelicato) from Ugly Betty and other kids like him can follow his dream of being President one day!

Note also that a majority of Americans still would not vote for a declared Presidential candidate who doesn't believe in G-d. Sigh.

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