Kelly Clifton first voted in the 1948 presidential election — one of the greatest political upsets in election history — when incumbent President Harry S. Truman defeated Republican nominee Thomas Dewey, despite being dismissed by the pundits and the polls.
Now 81, Clifton, a University of Wisconsin oncology professor emeritus, will vote in his 21st presidential election — and the first that is guaranteed to send either a female or black candidate into Washington.
“I think it’s an extraordinary thing right now,” Clifton said. “The big differences are the sex and race changes, and I think they are here to stay.”
Donning a perfect voting record since he turned 18, things aren’t going to change for the 2008 election.
“I haven’t missed one yet, and I’m sure as hell not going to miss this one,” Clifton said.
The top spots in American government have long been the same, as the country has consecutively elected 42 white males and their demographically-similar running mates into office since 1798, when George Washington was sworn in.
But the accepted stereotypes that have applied to American politics since its foundation are about to change indefinitely. As Americans awaken the morning of Nov. 5, a historical candidate will be packing his — or her — bags, readying for the move to Washington.
“This is going to be historic either way it goes,” said UW political science professor Barry Burden. “It’s a cultivation of 200 years of elections where we’re slowly allowing women, African-Americans and other underrepresented groups to make their way further and further up the political ladder — and this is near the top.”
Just the thought of such an eclectic presidential ticket was unfathomable even a few years ago, let alone from both political parties, said retired Wisconsin Historical Society librarian and UW journalism faculty member James Danky.
“You don’t have to look back very long — as in talking to your parents or your grandparents — to understand that something like this was just beyond imagining,” he said.
But the unimaginable is now a reality.
Product of civil rights
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has already made it further than any other black candidate in U.S. history, a direct product of what many believe is an increasingly colorblind America.
“To the Democrats, I think you can certainly see it as a product of the civil rights movement of all parts of the population — not just African-American,” Danky said.
Burden said he believes Obama’s successful nomination is a result of the efforts of other individuals who failed before him, such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, without whom his success wouldn’t be possible.
“This, I would say, is really just a culmination of events that have taken place over the last 200 years,” he said, “but more dramatically, over the last 20 or 30.”
Burden said he believes black voters, who Democrats normally rely on regardless of their nominee, will report to the polls in higher numbers for two unique reasons.
“He’s a black candidate, so black voters are identifying with him and are excited about that, really viewing this as a watershed,” Burden said.
Additionally, the techniques of reaching supporters through grassroots connections and emphasizing voter registration — both of which Obama’s campaign have been pushing heavily — are all “going to help get black voters out this fall.”
UW Afro-American studies professor Michael Thornton said he recognizes the symbol of hope Obama’s presence in the White House would be for black voters but worries this election could devalue racial issues throughout the country.
“I think that probably the most important thing is that it gives people hope that something like this can happen, and I think that’s a great thing,” Thornton said. “But what I fear is that many people are going to make the assumption that it has happened, if he is elected, that race is no longer that important.”
Thornton said he worries programs that focus on racial diversity, such as affirmative action policies, will be eliminated, fearing “race will no longer be considered that important because the impossible has happened if elected.”
He also questioned the “black candidate” label Obama has received, when in fact he is biracial.
“You would assume if we were really talking about bringing people together, it would make more sense to refer to him as mixed racial because he symbolized, supposedly, what he wants to do, but also what America’s about,” Thornton said.
Increased female representation
The selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee is also historical, though not the first, as it would put a female closer to the White House than ever before.
UW political science professor Katherine Cramer Walsh said women have been advocating their right to vote and represent themselves since the nation’s founding, adding timing has played a role toward the unique nature of the 2008 election.
Female representation in national politics is increasing, accounting for 16.8 percent of the U.S. Congress in 2007, though Cramer Walsh said the increase has been quite slow and gradual.
She added it is not surprising that a female is on the Republican presidential ticket, as stereotypes play a significant role when women run for office, and Palin’s nomination is “causing voters to think because so often the stereotypical stance of a female candidate is not the stance of the Republican Party.”
As Palin’s conservative stances break the preconceived notions of the stereotypical female candidate, including her views on abortion, some voters have started reevaluating the assumptions.
“When you hear the label ‘Republican,’ most folks’ gut instinct is to say, ‘Well, that candidate must be pro-life;’ and when you hear the label ‘the female candidate,’ most people think, ‘Well, that’s must be a pro-choice candidate,'” Cramer Walsh said. “So because Sarah Palin is a female Republican, it forces people to stop and think before they make judgments about what her stances are.”
Through her own research, Cramer Walsh said people often say they view Palin as “down with the people” and “not a typical politician,” saying she possesses “something genuine” that many national politicians lack.
But while Burden agrees some women view Palin as someone who shares their values and has their best interests in mind, for a lot of other women, “that won’t be the case and they care more about the issues.”
UW women’s studies and political science professor Aili Tripp, who spoke independently of the Women’s Studies Research Center, of which she is chair, said Palin represents what women have been fighting against for decades.
“It is my personal view that Palin does not represent what women in this country have fought so hard for in their struggles to advance the rights of women,” Tripp said. “She may be a fine woman and a terrific mom, but that is not at issue here.”
Tripp said she supports Palin’s right to possess views on sex education, birth control and abortion but said she believes her nomination is a “cynical attempt” to manipulate the electorate.
“The selection of Palin tells me McCain is more interested in pandering to right wing ideologues than in supporting the rights of women,” she said.
The voice of politics
Because the scale of modern presidential elections is so large, it is nearly impossible for any voter to get coverage firsthand, leaving the media as the only mouthpieces for campaigns to reach supporters.
“The media are huge, hugely important because it’s the only way for voters to find out about candidates,” Burden said. “Most of us don’t interact with candidates personally, don’t have any one-on-one connections to somebody in the campaign, so we find out through the press.”
Burden said the media are typically favorable to one candidate over the other, but the favoritism shifts back and forth over the course of the campaign.
But the definition of media has changed, even since the 2004 election, allowing for a larger pool of journalists and media outlets than ever.
With the decline of newspaper circulation and fewer viewers watching network news, more voters are turning to blogs, the Internet and cable news to get election information, Danky said.
“If you could blog interestingly enough, you could become a major factor in the election,” Danky said. “You have a 24-hour news cycle, and we choose to fill it with a fairly idiosyncratic, much more diffuse set of media choices in what I think promises to be a very close presidential election campaign.”
He added the combination of a 24-hour news cycle and “celebrity-driven journalism” has caused a demand where “there’s nothing about anybody that we don’t want to know and nobody asks, until the opposition does, whether it’s relevant or not.”
Anyone could create a “devilish rumor,” Danky said, that could potentially spread to millions across the Internet within minutes.
Both Obama and Palin have been plagued with rumors throughout their campaigns, ranging from religious affiliations to babies to dinosaurs.
And although the Internet allows rumors to spread more rapidly, Danky said political rumors about candidates have been spread and widely known long before computers.
It’s possible
Burden said after each attempt by a female or black candidate to get elected to a higher office, the stage is set for someone else to go further the next time.
“Once one of these tickets wins and there’s either an African-American president or a female vice president, I think some voters who are skeptical that someone from one of those categories could succeed will just have a lot of their concerns alleviated,” he said.
Even aside from the unique candidates in the 2008 election, Cramer Walsh said the current moment we are living in — including military involvement overseas and a struggling economic crisis — is historically a very pressing time.
The nontraditional presidential tickets make the election even more relevant, she said, and “the certainty that we are going to have the first African-American president or our first female vice president is a very big deal.”
But whether the outcome of Nov. 4 leads to equal gender representation in politics, promotes racial acceptance or results in no significant change at all, it will move Americans much closer to the old truism many often hear at a young age.
“It just wasn’t true that everybody in the kindergarten class really has a shot of growing up and becoming president,” Danky said. “But today, I think that there’s powerful evidence that it’s possible.”
