So it was made official that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States. I thought I should reflect on this historic moment as a woman. Regardless of whether she wins the presidential bid or not, or if you like her personally, or not, she is the first woman to ever be officially nominated by either the Republican or Democratic parties as their candidate of choice for president. This after, President Obama became the first black person to do so eight years ago.
It is absolutely mind boggling to think that it has taken this long for a woman to get the nomination, let alone be "allowed" to even compete for the position. We often pride ourselves as a nation in saying that if you work hard, if you are educated, if you put your best foot forward, you will have opportunity, but what so many fail to acknowledge is that this isn't always the case. A person may work hard, may do all the right things, but never be given an opportunity to even try to show their merit because they are a woman or because they are a minority or disabled or gay or whatever label that people tend to over analyze with a magnifying glass to say, well, "they" can't possibly do what someone else has done, because of they are this label and not that label.
I mean you hear political radio and tv hosts actively asking on a frequent basis whether they think a woman can do the job as if Hillary was just plucked out of no where with no political background whatsoever (hello, Donald Trump). Now whether she can possibly do the job well, actually based on her political credentials and background if she does get the job, is actually a valid question we can and should be asking, but not whether having a vagina or estrogen running through the system should disqualify you outright for the position of president.
It really is about time that our representatives start actually representing the make-up of this country and that we stop having to constantly battle over people being the first of something, and instead actually let any candidate that wants to try, try, and let the focus be on the politics. I feel like we've all spent so much time dealing with BS minutia this election season, that the real stuff we care about and need taken care of, has been pushed so far back into a corner, that people have stopped asking the hard hitting questions anymore about things that really actually matter politically to our lives.
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