Thinking about Romney’s Mormon issue, just wondering what the title of the thread says.
If a candidate was openly, but not PETA level, vegetarian would that person appeal to 51% plus of voters?
Personally I don’t think it would fly, particularly the Rush/Fox News folks would have a field day against a Veg Democratic candidate. They would characterize the hypothetical candidate as environmentalist Wack-job and pushing a pro-Veg agenda.
Also, the candidate wouldn’t be able to have the burger at the local bar photo ops.
Oh it would come up for sure. Fox News notices no meat being consumed during the photo ops and the weeks on the road with reporters. Obama smoking came up, not big time but a lot more people smoke than are Veg. You could really frame the candidate as out of touch w/ American people or Veg environmentalist wacko. You don’t think Fox News would mention it?
So are tobacco companies, but a non-smoker could be elected president.
All that being a vegetarian necessarily means is that the person chooses, for whatever reason, personally not to eat any meat. I don’t think most people care enough about a President’s dietary choices to change their vote because of them.
I think that being a vegetarian candidate would be difficult for the reasons described above. However, you don’t need the support of Rush Etc. to be elected; you need the support of one side plus the independents. So it might be possible. Consider Obama–he had the full force of the right wing noise machine aimed against him (Madrassa! Muslim! Unpatriotic! Radical!) but got elected anyway, because the independents went for him.
That was for Bill Clinton, of course, who I understand is now vegan for health reasons. Vegetarianism as a health choice (and not a nutty one, at that) is rising steadily in the public consciousness. I wouldn’t be very surprised to see a major candidate within the next few elections who has already made a similar choice by the time of candidacy, and when that happens, I doubt it will be a notable factor in the outcome. By then it will be seen as little different than giving up alcohol or extra salt.
I think the meat industry might be the biggest barrier to a vegetarian prez, not the voters.
Remember that there are a lot of special interests involved in modern food production (ever see the movie Food Inc?). Both Republicans and Democrats are in bed with big business agriculture.
Remember that even the almighty Oprah was put on the defensive by the beef industry.
That being said, Dennis Kucinich was a vegan when he was running for prez, so it wouldn’t be the first time.
(I am a vegetarian myself so I notice these things, though I was pretty disappointed that he stopped identifying as a pro-life liberal when he decided to run for prez).
