Welcome, Madam President

Until the election of Donald Trump, I regarded the gradual increase of human rights for all kinds of people in my lifetime as the inevitable progress of human history. Born in the 1950s, the same era that gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement, I witnessed steady changes in how our country worked to extend the blessings of liberty to everyone.

Court cases and legislation to end “separate but equal” policies in education, housing, the military, and public places have still not resulted in equal participation for all. But the ongoing effort to achieve equal rights for Black people led to significant other changes, notably the women’s rights movement.

I grew up in south Louisiana. For decades Cajun people had advised their kids to learn English and abandon the old ways; by 1970 Cajun pride had spawned a renewal of Cajun music, cooking, culture, and exchange programs with French Canada and France.

Later, my wife and I worked a dozen years in northwest New Mexico. As with the Cajuns, our Navajo coworkers and students underwent a renaissance of their traditions in language and culture. It was cool to speak Navajo, and across America, other tribes experienced the same resurgence of pride. We elected Barack Obama as president, as both the first Black man and mixed-race person to attain that office. In the past decade, it became legal for our daughter to wed the woman she loves, on equal footing with her sister’s engagement with her male fiancé.

The entirety of the “Make America Great Again” movement has been a response to these changes. The word “again” signifies that Trump and his devoted followers would return to America of the 1950s, when Blacks knew their place, minorities strove to be invisible, women cooked dinner, and gays hid in their closets.

It’s time we elect a woman president. Instead of retreating in fear to a past when only white men run our country, we should boldly enter a future when, truly, anyone can reach the top job. Many of our allies (Israel, India, England, Germany, Pakistan) have had female heads of state. At home women have served in the cabinet, Congress, Supreme Court. Most (if not all) 50 states have elected female governors, mayors, judges, senators, and more.

Should we elect a woman solely because of her sex? Of course not. Obama was elected not because he was Black but because the voters decided that was unimportant – his message, his eloquence, his fundamental dignity, and his family focus counted more than his skin tone.

Four highly qualified US senators stand for the 2020 Democratic Party nomination, as well as a congresswoman, and someone described as an author, lecturer and activist – and sometimes a kook, which should gain her a following in Eureka Springs.

At least the first five deserve a serious look. Two were prosecutors, the senators are all lawyers, the congresswoman is a military veteran. They understand how government works and they have dedicated most of their adult lives to public service – not making money through reality TV, casinos, golf courses, and stirring up controversy.

So can they stand up to the belligerence of the current leader of the free world? Think about Trump stalking Hilary Clinton in televised debates, and how he mocked Sen. Warren as “Pocahontas” for her claim of a fraction of Native American blood – a claim made by many Americans not running for president. My guess is that Sen. Kamala Harris scares him most. As she is the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, Don Trump Junior stated she is not “black enough.” Harris is a cool customer; she does not rattle easily, and as a prosecuting attorney, she knows how to calmly use evidence to argue her case.

It’s an exciting time. Can Americans actually overthrow Trumpocracy and elect someone vastly different? Someone intelligent, forceful, and experienced in government? Can we realign ourselves in building a future rather than reverting to the past?

Next week twenty Democrats will engage in TV “debates” – ten at a time, prompted by newscasters, eager to state their case and perhaps knock someone else down. Watch closely.

Kirk Ashworth