# Who will be the first non-white prez? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 1, 2001, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463 "2001-08-01T13:03:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/61 "2001-08-04T01:11:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kimstu \* > \*\*If there tends to be more racism on the conservative end of the political spectrum than on the liberal end, then it would make sense that black liberals would be more vulnerable to it than black conservatives. Racist conservatives’ disapproval of a black conservative’s being black would be somewhat tempered by their approval of his being conservative. A black liberal, on the other hand, wouldn’t have that redeeming feature in their eyes, so it would be open season on him. \*\* I see it the opposite way. A candidate, regardless of race, wouldn’t get the vote of the opposing party, but a Black candidate would lose racist votes within his/her own party. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2001, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/62 "2001-08-04T01:28:33Z")
**december:** _A candidate, regardless of race, wouldn’t get the vote of the opposing party, but a Black candidate would lose racist votes within his/her own party._ Both could be true; if one party tended to have more racists than the other, that party’s black candidates might lose more votes, but the other party’s black candidates might get more openly attacked. At the same time, that party’s black candidates might draw black/antiracist “loyalty votes” from members of the other party. So it’s kind of a complicated equation all told. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/63 "2001-08-04T01:29:26Z")
I think Dave Chapelle had a clever answer for this. Make your vice-president a Mexican (born in America). “You can kill me but you’ll just open up the borders. So I suggest you leave me and president Santiago to our vices.” ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2001, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/64 "2001-08-04T01:33:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kimstu \* > \*\* At the same time, that party’s black candidates might draw black/antiracist “loyalty votes” from members of the other party. \*\* **Kimstu** , you may be right. Getting personal, my ultra-liberal wife wouldn’t vote for pro-lifer J.C. Watts until Hell froze over. Coincidentally, I’d vote for Jesse Jackson at that very same moment. ---
**Author:** ![jaimest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/48db29/32.png) [@jaimest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaimest)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/65 "2001-08-04T01:56:41Z")
Hispanic politicians are now winning statewide office in California and Texas. Bill Richardson and Henry Cisneros have shot their national political careers in the foot though. Of course not all Hispanics are “mestizos”, I would hesitate to call a Cuban American like Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart [http://www.house.gov/diaz-balart/](http://www.house.gov/diaz-balart/) “nonwhite”. “Minority” would be a better term, as it would include white Latinos, Jews, Arab Americans and so on. Bush and the GOP are trying oh so hard to woo Hispanics: Trent Lott of all people lambasted the Democrats for “Anti-Hispanic” attitudes the other day! [http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010725/pl/mexican\_trucks\_14.html](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010725/pl/mexican_trucks_14.html). So I wouldn’t be too surprised if a Republican ticket would have a conservative Latino VP within the next 12 year. Proabably a Cuban American or other non-Mexican, non-Puerto Rican from Florida - who has kept his distance from the “Miami Exile” crowd, yet has conservative credentials. Florida is a must win state, as New York is Democrat, and California has become fairly solidly Democrat (could Condit change that?), and Texas is solidly Republican, and the Democrats hopes there rest entirely with a massive Hispanic turnout. Such a candidiate would be “minority” enough for the GOP to claim a “big tent”, yet not someone that would make Jesse Helms reach for his musket - someone white-skinned and very fluent in English. The only problem with that is many of the more prominent Hispanic Republican politicians are not American born (since the conservative Latin American influx began after 1959), and thus are ineligible for the highest office. Maybe within 10 years or so. Also, many Mexican American and Puerto Rican voters, as well as many blacks, dislike the Cuban American establishment. And I do think the Republicans will feel more pressure to have a “minority” candidate than the Democrats. Then it will be the Democrats turn… I’m part Jewish, part Latino, with a remote dash of Indian blood. If it weren’t for my lack of even a decent sex scandal (im on the 'Dope Friday Night for goshsakes), I’d make a good Democratic candidate. I can do the Clinton ‘empathy face’ really well! ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/66 "2001-08-04T21:19:17Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by december \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kimstu \* > \*\*If there tends to be more racism on the conservative end of the political spectrum than on the liberal end … \*\* But this isn’t the case. Lefties often indulge themselves in anti-white racism, and they can be quite vicious about it. ---
**Author:** ![Demise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@Demise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demise)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/67 "2001-08-06T20:58:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Danimal \* > **I don’t think a man with zero experience in the military** Sorry to pull this up from a few days ago, but I want to correct this. Michael Powell was, in fact, in the millitary (the Army to be precise) until 1988. From [this article](http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/06/powell/index.html) on Salon: > [@](#): > > A would-be star in the Army until serious injuries from an end-over-end jeep accident on a German autobahn cut his military career short… ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/68 "2001-08-06T21:27:36Z")
**LP** replied to me: \*“If there tends to be more racism on the conservative end of the political spectrum than on the liberal end …” But this isn’t the case. Lefties often indulge themselves in anti-white racism, and they can be quite vicious about it.\* There may well be some truth to that. But in the first place, that doesn’t tell us whether such “anti-white racism” among leftists is in fact as prevalent as other kinds of racism among conservatives. In the second place, recall that this thread is discussing the possible negative impact of racism on **non-white** candidates, so “anti-white racism” isn’t really relevant to the issue at hand. ---
**Author:** ![Danimal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/69 "2001-08-06T22:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Demise \* > Sorry to pull this up from a few days ago, but I want to correct this. Michael Powell was, in fact, in the millitary (the Army to be precise) until 1988. > > From [this article](http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/06/powell/index.html) on Salon: > > > [@](#): > > > > A would-be star in the Army until serious injuries from an end-over-end jeep accident on a German autobahn cut his military career short… > > \*\* Yikes. Sorry about the mistaken assumption. I see that Michael Powell was a lieutenant at the time his Army career ended. When we have elected career military officers in the past, they have been generals (Grant, Eisenhower). I still think the younger Powell needs more seasoning in Congress, in the Cabinet, or as a governor before he can be considered serious presidential material. ---
**Author:** ![IzzyR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@IzzyR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IzzyR)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/70 "2001-08-07T00:31:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kimstu \* > (The unnamed columnist suggesting that Gore chose Lieberman to bolster his support from Jews, or the many blacks concerned about Lieberman’s commitment to affirmative action, don’t seem to me to fall into that category.) Guy’s name is Bill Tatum, publisher (emeritus) of the paper. A lot of people thought it was anti-semitic, possibly because the tone of it seemed to play to anti-semitic stereotypes: > [@](#): > > Therefore the reasoning in the Gore camp went out all over the world to Jews of means: you’ve got to show me the money. When you do, one of yours will be given the second spot on the ticket. The word went out all over the world to Jews in every pocket of civilization and near civilization, that the major protector of Jews in this world, is now available. But in order to get it, you’ve got to buy it. If this scenario is the correct one, and we believe that it is, America is being sold to the highest bidder YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2001, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463/71 "2001-08-07T06:15:29Z")
We’ll probably have at least one minority president before then, but I would keep my eye on George **P.** Bush–one of Jeb Bush’s “little brown ones”–in about twenty or thirty years. He was an active campaigner in the last election, and is currently attending UT law school. The Bush Dynasty Lives On–Vote Bush in 2020! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-will-be-the-first-non-white-prez/74463.md?page=3)