“Anyone can grow up to become President.” We’ll have an interesting test of that parental hypothesis in less than a week, when a minority of registered voters in 20 states cast primary ballots in what is being touted as “Super Tuesday” (not to be confused with “Super Sunday,” or, for that matter, the five other less-than-super days of the week).
Among the candidates will be a penitent Gary Hart: Can an adulterer be President? As will be Bob Dole: Can a “poor” millionaire become president?
So, too, will be Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson: Can a black activist or a white preacher become president?
At this point in time, the likelihood of either of these last two gaining the momentum needed to win the nomination of their respective parties seems highly unlikely. To a nonpolitico, this might be something of a surprise. After all, many of the other top candidates suffered damaging journalistic scrutiny during the early stages of the campaign.
But then, some hurdles are more easily overcome on the road to the presidency than others. And both Jackson and Robertson are suffering under the weight of a moral onus that is apparently more difficult to deal with than adultery or falsehood, and certainly more condemning of an open-minded, free society. Their moral hurdle is prejudice, specifically of the racial and religious variety.
The racial question, in Jackson’s case, has provided American society with a litmus test of just how far the civil rights movement has come—and how far the nation wants it to go. The reading to this point, however, is unclear: black support for Jackson remains strong; white support, weak.
This could be due simply to a perception that Jackson is unqualified for the presidency. Or it could be a sign of racism, as bluntly asserted by columnist Roger Simon: “[Jackson] is the wrong race to be president. He is a black man in a white country.”
Can a black become President? “Unlikely” is the only answer for now.
As for Robertson, televangelists’ misadventures have further complicated a candidacy already mired in talk of theocracies and mystical “words from God.” The candidate himself has not helped, projecting a smug persona perceived by the secular press as condescending.
But Robertson also suffers as the result of a prejudice. In a 1987 Gallup poll asking respondents who they would not like to have as neighbors, fundamentalists and blacks tied for second place behind minority religious sects and cults.
Can a religiously conservative Christian preacher become President? At the moment, evidently not.
So, then, who can grow up to become President? That’s a good question—one both parties are confused by. And it is one the church needs to be in prayer over as its men and women decide our country’s leadership for the next four years.
By Harold B. Smith.
