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Edited on Tue Jul-15-08 03:10 PM by Drunken Irishman
The context of the quote was the possibility of John Kennedy winning the presidency.
"This country is not a private preserve for
Protestants. There's a whole new generation out there and it's filled with the sons and
daughters of immigrants from all over the world and those people are going to be
mighty proud that one of their own was running for President. And that pride will be
your spur."
That is the entire quote and of course, John Kennedy became the first American president who was, in fact, not Protestant. Yet this was in 1960 and since, America has yet to see a non-Protestant ascend to the presidency. In fact, since Kennedy's presidency, there has not been one white or black ethnic candidate to serve in the White House. That could change in January, but even as America became more diverse both culturally and religiously throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, we've still only had one Roman Catholic president, even though Catholicism is the largest religious denomination in America. And we've still only had one white ethnic president, Kennedy, who was Irish. Since, this country has pretty much been ruled by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. So for all the barriers the Kennedy campaign supposedly broke in 1960, it's taken almost 50 years for America to be put in that position again. Why?
Kennedy won in large part by becoming the first non-WASP candidate. So many ethnic Americans felt if he could succeed, they could too. If he had a chance at the presidency, then so could an Italian-American, a Jewish-American and, yes, even an African-American. Yet here we are, 50 years later, and nothing really has changed in the terms of the presidency. Kennedy's victory didn't open the doors for a groundswell of minority candidates and it certainly didn't help the Catholics, as since John Kerry is the only Catholic to win the nomination from a major party. So if Obama wins, things aren't going to change dramatically. It could be another 50 years before we see a different type of president. Maybe it's a woman, or a Hispanic or a Jew. But we shouldn't expect that with this victory, bigotry and the disadvantages for many ethnic groups (and women too), will go away. Because they won't. Joe Kennedy thought electing a Catholic to the presidency would open the White House doors to future Catholics, it hasn't. Obama's victory will be a huge step in the right direction, but it's still only part of the fight and we must not think it ends the second he is sworn into office.
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