Speed Bumps Toward History in the Making

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  Customer Service Rep

The forty-fifth president of the United States of America will be elected on this day-- November 8, 2016. There is no doubt that it will be a historic election, no matter who wins. One candidate is a man who has never served in a public office or in the military.—a first-time occurrence, if it happens. Politics and politicians may be thrown on its ear. The second candidate is a woman, which in the event that she is elected will be the first non-male to be president of the USA. In fact, since women got the right to vote less than one hundred years ago-- on August 18, 1920 when the 19th amendment was ratified and became law, no woman has been elected president. If Hillary Clinton is elected president a new gender of presidents may be opened. Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008 it would be a new trajectory in presidential leadership from white males (all until 2008) to others previously not allowed to be presidential candidates, yet alone allowed to vote.

When I think about the magnitude of this possible movement away from prior history, I can see why there would be such a tremendous pushback. We have seen the change in our general population, in our congregations and in the world. It is undoubtedly a good change for the human population in North America, but it is one which would lead the privileged and dominant classes of society to do everything they can to limit it. It would bring a new and deeper significance to the great shift in the world that took place since the 1960's. This is important to recognize because so often we think of the United States since the days of Viet Nam and Watergate as lacking moral fiber. We often consider the events of the seventies and eighties which led to a radicalizing of ethical norms and taking stands away from historic positions as leading us in a negative direction and helping to cause the breakdown of morality is society. Now we see that, in effect, without the breakdown of those norms there would not be a black president or the possibility of a female president.

Little wonder why this election has been so nasty and so controversial. In my experience persons in power do not give up easily and those with a sense of entitlement do not give up without a fight. Barbarism rears its ugly head when those who consider themselves fittest and strongest (white males) are now challenged first by a non-white person and then by a female. After all, what will happen if the world is turned upside down?

All of this happens in a nation which was once considered "a city set on a hill", God's last "grand experiment" in the world. One wonders whether those who called it that were not able to see beyond the nose on their faces. Perhaps God's grand experiment began in 1870 with the possibility of blacks voting and continued in 1920 with the possibility of women voting. It could well lead to what has transpired since 2008. It should at least lead society to be more open to the inevitability of change in our world today. Perhaps not all people can embrace that change, but hopefully all will accept its outcome.

The longer I live the more that I recognize that most things have good and bad in them. The same revolution of the sixties and seventies that brought about radical change in our society (and a breakdown in norms) can bring about equality of race and gender in leadership in our "grand experiment" of the world. This should be appreciated by all. And, if it turns out the glass ceiling is not broken this time, it is surely inevitable soon.