Could TV's current acceptance of powerful women help pave the way for Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign?

[Boundegar]

Good point. Deep Space Nine, too.

[Daedalus]

@gellfex

I wish our current political system rewarded actual experience like it frequently used to, rather than rhetoric written on a blank slate that people can project their hopes on

[citation needed]

I mean, isn’t one of the big points of democracy that you don’t need any special experience to be grand high poobah of the acknowledged dinkus brigade that is our fellow human? That literally, that guy next to you on the train would be as good a leader as anyone else?

[Mister44]

I’d hope she’d run under a 3rd party.

[Nonentity]

@Bass

“Weird” Al was once the president?

And apparently did it while looking oddly similar to Christopher Walken.

[gellfex]

@Jambeeno

I wish it didn’t have to be Clinton. She and her husband are just thoroughly unlikable and represent much of what I despise about the Democratic Party (and I’m a staunch leftist, mind).

Imagine if Bernie Sanders were a fifty-something woman instead of a 73 yo white guy. Why can’t we have that? Do we have that anywhere?

Everyone who met him apparently thought GWB was an incredibly likeable guy. I think we should agree to take that off the table as a requirement. As for your ideal candidate, have you heard Elizabeth Warren speak? She’s a lefty wet dream.

[vonbobo]

Wish TV had a role model that stood up for The People, and not just their own interests.

[chgoliz]

I’m not so sure that becoming president is really the way to make the most change in the U.S. government. Having strong and ETHICAL leadership in the House, Senate and Cabinet, and heading many of the agencies does more in the long run…if you have to choose between those two options. Both together is better, obviously.

[aaarrrrrggggg]

A whisker biscuit?

[fuzzyfungus]

@Daedalus

I mean, isn’t one of the big points of democracy that you don’t need any special experience to be grand high poobah of the acknowledged dinkus brigade that is our fellow human?

Some people in democratic societies have made that particular claim; but it’s pretty much unrelated to democracy as a thing.

Democracy does imply that you don’t need any special experience to part of the process of choosing the latest leader(or that, even if special experience would be helpful, letting amateurs have a go at it is in practice the lesser evil than trying to keep your aristocracy from turning into an oligarchy); but it is perfectly compatible with the notion that being the leader is a difficult job requiring specific talent/experience/skill/etc; so long as it includes the idea that the electorate at large is capable of choosing such leaders at least some of the time.

[Bass]

@Shuck

“How are they going to indicate the story is science fiction now?”

President Cyborg or Robot

[Bass]

I’ll argue that the most important skill you need is Leadership.

[Shuck]

That’s too far future. Female president still has a little life left in it, and beyond that Asian president or gay president. Asian lesbian president is probably on par with cyborg president, in terms of its futuristic quality.

[popobawa4u]

@Bass

I’ll argue that the most important skill you need is Leadership.

Hells no. We’ve been dealing with having lots of leadership without any representation. And as my old axiom goes: “Leadership is for people who don’t know what they’re doing.” I’ll take representation rather than leadership.

[rogerdc]

Did TV’s acceptance of lead men womanizing help pave the way for Bill Clinton’s presidency?

Did TV’s acceptance of the loosening of sexual mores help pave the way for a more promiscuous society?

Did TV’s acceptance of homosexual characters help pave the way for gay marriage?

Did Murphy Brown’s baby help pave the way for larger acceptance of single motherhood?

Remember that when social conservatives pointed out that Murphy Brown’s baby could do that, we were derided because, “It’s just a TV show!”

Are those of you who are social liberals now admitting that TV shows can now lead and condition a society into accepting the morality presented there?

[popobawa4u]

@rogerdc

Are those of you who are social liberals now admitting that TV shows can now lead and condition a society into accepting the morality presented there?

Or, did people use other media to coerce people into avoiding promiscuity, homosexuality, and single parents in the first place? It would be assuming far too much to say that there is even any agreement about the supposed “morality” involved with any of these.

People are conditioned to fight to the death over stupid shit like this precisely because these things don’t matter. It keeps people, their familes, and the education easier for self-interested busybodies to control. Instead of teaching people critical thinking, problem solving - anything which would actually help.

[anon165457]

Sure, that’ll keep for a few decades, but eventually it will have to be a gay cyborg president.

[anon165457]

Only to an extent. What makes it on TV (and what we find allowable on TV as a society) is a mirror of what is going on in society.

Sans Murphy Brown, we’d probably still be accepting of single motherhood. It may have helped changes some people’s attitudes towards it, but the fact that it got greenlit for TV meant that those attitudes were already changing.

[Jambeeno]

Yeah I guess likability is a naive criterion, but the President is awfully social role…

Warren would be the best candidate if she ran, I think. Not sure what the field is like; I’ll guess I’ll check Wikipedia to see if there are any goodn’s among the crackpots.

[Dorn]

So how do we actually measure if it does? I wasn’t aware of Gallup or other polling companies finding an actual measurement for “mah feels”… Maybe if election ads were only posted through Tumblr… /shudder

With this logic, we should have had the first gay president right after Will and Grace was cancelled… then again, I’m looking forward to future president Tim Cook.

What can I say, I’m a bit grouchy today, the acupuncture didn’t take yet.

[popobawa4u]

@Dorn

So how do we actually measure if it does? I wasn’t aware of Gallup or other polling companies finding an actual measurement for “mah feels”… Maybe if election ads were only posted through Tumblr… /shudder

We DON’T! This multi-stage popularity contest / circus is what ruins US elections. Just put a list of all 10-20-whatever viable names and choose once. No media circus, and no poll results until it’s finished.