He wasn’t at Yale, he yust got out before the election.
Rush Limbaugh would be complaining that FDR is not disabled enough. A lot of Americans would say that he’s using a terrorist wheelchair. Even more would be shouting for proof that he was born disabled.
I have to admit I’ve never understood “* pride” (where “*” is the descriptor of your choice - black, gay, disability, etc.). In one of Groening’s “Life In Hell” strips, a character once claimed “masturbation is nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s nothing to be particularly proud of, either.” I tend to feel the same way about most of these “pride” movements. One ought not be ashamed of the circumstances (good or bad) fate has assigned to them (blackness, homosexuality, disability, etc.), but why should anyone be proud of something that is not an accomplishment?
I’d have to concede that one.
It was because a lot of black people were disenfranchised and racism was pervasive. I understand your point and I wouldn’t be surprised if some disabled people don’t run for office because they don’t think they would be elected. You wrote that Americans “apparently don’t choose to vote for [disabled people].” You’re right that there are few disabled people in higher office. I think we’d have a more meaningful answer if we knew how many opportunities Americans have had to vote for disabled people, and how many they’ve elected. Then we’d have some idea how willing people are to vote for a disabled candidate, and how willing disabled people are to run or how willing the parties are to support them as candidates.
How are they defining “disability” and “serious disability” here? If nearly 1 in 5 people have a physical disability, then it strikes me that the definition is so broad that there may well be more than 3 of that 585 who qualify.
Don’t forget President Bartlett, who had Multiple Sclerosis.
Well he was real to me.
Exactly - is that just people who get SSDI? Probably there are plenty of elected officials who’d be getting that for various reasons if they weren’t doing the job they do. Many, for example, are elderly and surely hard of hearing.
Additionally, most elected officials don’t tend to be working in jobs that disable you. Not many coal miners or factory workers or what have you run for Congress, so all the people who become disabled from work just aren’t running for whole other reasons besides that they’re disabled.
My Congressman is disabled, paralyzed from the waist down. Sometimes I wonder about the neck up. But he is not a war vet - stupid gun accident when he was a Police Explorer.
Can’t agree, **Markxxx.
Johnny LA **wins by a huge margin.
Best wishes,
hh
I heard some blather in 2008 about how McCain couldn’t use a computer. I doubt it was meant in good faith.
James Stockdale ran for VP, and missed one of the questions in the VP debate because he had his hearing aid turned off. He said so during a rather contentious exchange between Gore and Quayle and, while it got a laugh from the audience, it did rather show that he might not be up to the tasks of being VP.
I doubt being in a wheelchair is the same thing - most of the President’s job can be done sitting down.
Regards,
Shodan
I would say FDR’s multiple terms in office pretty much prove the entire job can be done from a wheelchair… and that back before the ADA was passed.
The obstacle is between the ears of the population at large, not the inability to walk.