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Old 04-09-2008   #48 (permalink)
Valentine
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Land of Flat, USA
Age: 42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaiden View Post
This time last year you could have replaced 'Europe' with 'America' and the answer would also have been no. Clearly that did not mean that no ethnic minority could ever hope for high office in the states, it simply meant that such a person had not yet come along. It's the same in Europe; if Obama was British he would be lapped up and swept into office right now and his skin colour would not bar him from that.

I've shown you that equivalent proportions of minorities are elected as representatives in Europe as America and I've shown you that being black has not affected Obama being extremely popular here. There are and have been ethnic minorities at very high levels of politics in this continent and there have been women and ethnic Jews at the very highest level here. Where in that picture do you decide that 'no European minority could ever hope for such office'? Your argument just doesn't seem to have any substance, mate.

It has not happened yet but nothing culturally, socially or politically suggests that it would be impossible.
Depending upon what you mean by legitimate run, Jesse Jackson in 1984 won 5 primaries and got over 18% of the total vote. He did twice as good in 1998 winning 11 primaries and about doubled his vote total. Are those legitimate runs, that can be debated.
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