Foreign Policy Under Mrs. President

There is a rumbling around the offices and water-coolers of America. Suddenly, people who have no prior knowledge of international affairs have become experts in foreign policy. They can tell you, with certainty, that the world is unprepared for a female American leader.

The general consensus is that we will receive less respect internationally and will become targets of further terrorist assault if we elect a female leader. There is also the concern that Hillary will rule "with her heart, not her head." According to the vast majority of the nation's leading boneheads and crumbums, the country will begin making its last swirls around the toilet bowl just as soon as Hillary takes her inaugural vows.

Nevermind that, if elected, Hillary could strike a vital and perhaps final blow for the ongoing women's equality movement, both domestically and abroad. But of course, we are all VERY aware of the upsides of having a woman president since it's been discussed for the past 150 years in this country. There have been no less than 58 female candidates for president, beginning in 1870, none of whom were viewed as legitimate until Mrs. Clinton.

Not surprisingly, America is behind the times in the area of female leadership as well. Many countries have been electing female officials for years; the Phillipines, Iceland, and Ireland, for example. Some have just begun, but are still far ahead of the U.S., who is still not "completely ready" to accept a woman as a leader, according to recent polls. Even Israel and India are ahead of America in regards to women as political leaders.

So why the denial? Upon what foundation are these "water-cooler" questions being asked?

I can understand how some people would believe that the United States would be weakened by having a female leader. In terms of the commonly accepted Muslim ideals, women are viewed as WEAK, and men are STRONG. The fear here is based upon two presuppositions:

1) All Muslims seek to destroy America.

2) All of America's enemies are practicing Muslims.

Obviously, both of these ideas are founded on layers of idiocy that have been buried under even more layers of bullshit, like a moron freezer that hasn't been defrosted in two millenniums.

Despite the fact that the single most popular Muslim leader of the last century was a woman, and that Golda Meir brought peace to Israel in the early 70's, most people will continue to assume that anything from the Middle-East or anything Muslim is evil. Of course, most people also don't know the difference between Israel, Iran, and Iraq. It's just a whole mess of evil over there!

Before this turns into the next crusade, let me state that all of the men who have previously won the presidency have seemed more qualified than their female counterparts, if only in support and moral backing. The country was, literally, not ready for a woman president until now. This is an interesting and multi-layered notion. Think for a moment, if the current administration would have done a GOOD job running the country, would we have had to postpone our gender-integrated election another four years? Another eight? Would the Republican ideals - the traditional "family values" ticket - have caused a relapse in progressive thought?

In any case, the time is here. I'm not encouraging a vote for Hillary, I just believe that the truth is important. And I say if people want to vote based on gender-bias, then they should own up to it, instead of hiding behind ignorance.