Anyone can win – but it used to be that Catholics, gays and blacks need not apply

America could elect a gay president before ever installing a woman in the White House. The Australian, February 8:

Former mayor Pete Buttigieg is surging into contention in next week’s New Hampshire Democratic primary after his surprise strong performance in Iowa. A new poll shows 38-year-old Mr Buttigieg has jumped eight points to 19 per cent support in New Hampshire since this week’s Iowa caucus, leapfrogging his rivals …

Is America quite ready for a gay commander-in-chief? The New York Times, December 4, 2019:

As Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has surged to a top position in Iowa polls in the Democratic presidential primary, media reports have emerged warning that his sexuality may yet derail his White House bid. A recent (poll found) 45 per cent, think the country is not ready for an openly gay president, … Ordinary voters are quoted saying they — or their “devout Christian” mother — “would never vote for a gay”.

Just a decade ago many thought America was hardly ready for a black president. Voice of America, November 1, 2009:

Democratic Party senator Barack Obama is on track to become the first African-American major party nominee for president … If the polls are borne out on election day, Obama would become the nation’s first black president. But surveys cannot determine whether, in the privacy of the voting booth, Americans will ultimately make a decision based on race.

Guess who else was unsure. CNN December 5, 2018:

Former first lady Michelle Obama said she initially doubted America was “ready” for a black president during former president Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “One of the reasons why I agreed to support Barack’s run for president was that deep down I was like, ‘there’s no way he’s going to win’. And we can just sort of get this out of the way, and I can be that supportive wife going ‘oh, honey, you tried. Um, OK, now let’s go back to our lives as usual’.”

Not so long ago some thought election a Catholic would undermine the White House – literally: JFK Library, February 9:

Anti-Catholic prejudice was still very much in the mainstream of American life when JFK decided to seek the presidency in 1960. Only one Catholic, governor Alfred E. Smith of New York, had ever been the presidential nominee of one of the major parties. Smith’s 1928 campaign was dogged by claims that he would build a tunnel connecting the White House and the Vatican and would amend the constitution to make Catholicism the nation’s established religion. He was overwhelmingly defeated …

It’s a problem. Let’s deal with this the JFK way. Speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 26, 1960:

Are we going to admit to the world that a Jew can be elected mayor of Dublin, a Protestant can be chosen foreign minister of France, a Muslim can be elected to the Israeli parliament — but a Catholic cannot be president of the United States? Are we going to admit to the world — worse still, are we going to admit to ourselves — that one-third of the American people are forever barred from the White House?

Take me home, country roads. Kennedy wins West Virginia primary. JFK Library:

In the end, after a vigorous campaign, which included extensive use of his family’s personal wealth, Kennedy won by 93,000 to 61,000 …