Will there be an Atheist, Female, or Homosexual President in our lifetime?

[guitarsniper]

I'm gonna go with a female president relatively soon, although if said female president turns out to be either Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachmann, it'll be a sad sad sad day.

That said, although atheism and homosexuality are mostly accepted, those opposed to both of these are incredbily well-organized and well-funded, which is why I believe that it'll be at least another 20-30 years before either of these become broadly accepted.

 

[Fijiman]

Honestly, as long as the person knows what the hell they are talking about and doesn't try to use their sex and/or sexual preferences/religion(or lack there of)/race/etc to try and gain support of voters, what should it matter? Really, the only thing keeping the presidential candidates from being more diverse is public opinion over matters like this.

 

[efAston]

There have been, and there are presently. Yours isn't the only country.

 

[Vanilla_Druid]

Female: Definitely. Probably pretty soon.

Atheist: Probably, but not as soon as a female. Religion is still a touchy issue for a lot of people. It may be one of the situations where the president isn't OVERTLY atheist, but makes no decisions or policy based on religion and doesn't bring it up.

Homosexual: Not a chance, unless he is heavily closeted. Heck, I'd be surprised if we ever saw a SINGLE (non-married) President, regardless of sexual orientation.

Grover Cleveland was a bachelor when he came into office (although he married the woman for whom he bought a stroller when she was an infant). I know that had very little to do with the topic at hand, but I thought I would just share that little factoid with you.

 

[RagTagBand]

Female president could of easily happened last time, though probably wont be on the cards again for a term or two just because "Hey, one gimmick president per decade, okay guys?".

Homosexual president...probably not for at least another 30-50 years. Once gay marriage is legal I can see it happening, but not before, and definitely not before your "Right wing" lets go of Religion as a major thing.

Atheist President? In America? Not for a century. Minimum. Atheists are currently the least trusted minority in America and numerous studies have shown this. America Hates Atheists. Funny thing though is that America could have easily had an Atheist president when it was first founded, It had a Deist or two IIRC, but their increasing religiosity (which jumped by an order of magnitude during the cold war) has turned a nation founded on Secular values into one of, if not the, most religious first world "western" country.

It's Sort of like watching a great musician destroy themselves with drugs. Except rather than producing less music and dying, they produce more, louder, shittier music and going on long tours full of bono-and-geldof-aint-got-shit-on-me preachiness.

 

[applesandoranges]

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[CleverCover]

From the way it sounds, we need the country to be left in such a desperate situation by one party that whoever is leading the other one is winner by default. Or they need to have the speaking prowess of Morgan Freeman and be hot/adorable.

A lady Pres in the next few years. Hilary Clinton would have won the Pres if she had the nomination first.

They other two....I really don't know. I have a hard time believing that a lot of people from the South would vote for a Gay or Atheist just because they happen to like the same sex or not believe in a higher power. Hell, I have a hard time believing anyone but a Christian will have an easy go of it.

 

[TheTurtleMan]

The order will probably be female, atheist, and maybe homosexual. An atheist may be able to get in office if they stay away from personal beliefs and sticks to actual, important matters. I strongly doubt there will be a gay president in my generation or the one following sadly. Women are on the fast track to gaining political power and I wouldn't be surprised to see one after a couple more cycles of presidents.

Hopefully in the future no one will care what religion, gender, or sexuality the people running are and we can focus on what actually matters in political candidates. Although that day is probably a long way away unfortunately.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

More than likely gay and athesist have already been filled.

 

[mrhappy1489]

Well in Australia, we killed two birds with one stone, our first Female Prime Minister is also an Atheist, now all we need to do is teach her how to be a useful leader and we might just be onto something.

 

[Rule Britannia]

Female president will definitely come first an and a homosexual president won't be able to happen until and atheist president is in power.

the time it will take?
Female president: 5-10 years
Atheist president: 30-40
Homosexual president: 60-80

If the idea of the bible is somehow irrifutably proven wrong there won't be a gay president coming soon.

I would like to see how an atheist president does in his/her term in office.

 

[Evilpigeon]

Well you guys elected a black man roughly 50 years after the climax of the civil rights movement. Homosexuals, atheists and women were never victims as much as black people, so it's entirely possible.

We've had atheists and women in the top position in several big name countries. Hell, Margaret Thatcher is often considered one of the greatest prime ministers ever.

Weirdly enough the voters that'd consider her a great prime minister are also the voters who'd typically be most against atheist, non-white or homosexual leaders. Strange how the world works huh...

 

[Trololo Punk]

Read today that about 33% of Americans would not vote for a homosexual president. That number is obviously significantly lower then it used to be and still dropping.

 

[DiMono]

Certainly a female President. Absolutely not a homosexual President unless he/she hides it. As for Atheist... well, you see how much trouble Romney's having with being Mormon? Unless perceptions change in the U.S. dramatically, it may not happen in our liftime.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Female one? Sure...hilary clinton already was.
Atheist? Probably, the current one and the previous 3 acted like a bunch of damn heathens.
Homosexual one? only if we somehow brought freddie mercury back from the dead and made a loophole that since he was risen on American soil he is naturalized, then....yeah...id vote for him.


but in reality...not an openly gay one.

and if he is, probably not the flaming ones that cause the stereotype that real normal gay people groan at....you know, 99% of the ones ever put on tv.

or neil patrick harris.

 

[krellen]

While there's no easy way to give an absolute answer to this question, there's a very easy way to give a relative one: look at current elected officials.

The first of those we will have is a female President. While not yet at statistically balanced levels, of the three groups in question women are by far the best represented.

Next one will be a homosexual. There are hundreds of openly homosexual people serving in elected offices, including several in Congress.

The last will be an Atheist. According to one source [http://www.michaelnugent.com/best/americas-top-two-elected-atheists/], in 2007, there were 5 avowed Atheists serving elected office in the entire country (compare to over a hundred [http://www.gaypolitics.com/2010/11/03/record-number-of-lgbt-candidates-elected-to-office/] homosexuals winning offices in 2010.) From the view of the internet and from college campuses, atheism may not be seen as very despised or ostracised, from the view of the country at large being an atheist is still a badge of shame.

I will almost definitely live to see a woman serve as POTUS. I might live to see a homosexual do so. I will not live to see an atheist, barring a radical shift in American culture.

 

[Jegsimmons]

Female president will definitely come first an and a homosexual president won't be able to happen until and atheist president is in power.

the time it will take?
Female president: 5-10 years
Atheist president: 30-40
Homosexual president: 60-80

If the idea of the bible is somehow irrifutably proven wrong there won't be a gay president coming soon.

I would like to see how an atheist president does in his/her term in office.

depends on his party affiliation i guess, i see an atheist who is conservative getting the vote easier than a liberal one. Mostly due to that conservative are pro religion, even if they dont agree with it.

 

[Something Amyss]

see i think homosexuality is more accepted in america than athiesm. At least in the way i have been treated out there.

There are places where nobody will give a damn if you're killed for being gay in the US.

I'm not sure there's really any notion of "acceptance" in America for either.

Pretty sure neither are very likely, so the semantics of which we're more likely to elect is pretty small compared to the snowball's chance in hell of either being elected any time soon.

On that note, and on the topic at hand, I think a woman has had a decent shot. I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton or Caribou Barbie, but they both had legitimate and solid followings. Palin might have been a sinch for the nod this time, if not for the fact that it would grossly reduce her salary.

Now, I mean, nothing's certain. It could be we see a gay President before a woman, but I'd put a woman in my lifetime as statistically likely, a homosexual or atheist as unlikely.

We've has, as far as I know, identical numbers of (openly) gay and atheist congressmen in our legislative branch. And that number's about to go down to a total of 0 active members for both.

Until we see the number of either rise in the House and Senate, we won't see one at the Presidential level. There have been a ton of blacks and women at every level (save Presidency), so it's not a complete surprise that Obama became President, or that the big two on the Democratic ticket were him and Clinton. Even then, we've still got like 10% of the country willingly to openly admit they would not vote for a black person.

 

[Something Amyss]

depends on his party affiliation i guess, i see an atheist who is conservative getting the vote easier than a liberal one. Mostly due to that conservative are pro religion, even if they dont agree with it.

A conservative atheist will never make it through the vetting process, though.