White Protestants, Your Monopoly Is Over

Attention white Anglo-Saxon Protestants: Your days of running things are over. You have jumped the shark.

But there’s no need to feel bad for WASPs.

They’ve had an amazing run. Every single president in our nation’s history, except for John F. Kennedy — a Catholic — and Barack Obama, has been a white Protestant. Except for a handful of exceptions, for over 200 years the presidential nominees of both major political parties have been WASPs. {snip}

But it’s over. Look at this year’s presidential tickets: A Mormon, an African-American, and two Catholics. Even some of the keynote speakers at the Democratic and Republican conventions were not WASPs. The GOP featured Italian-Irish Catholic Chris Christie and the Democrats tapped Latino-American, Julian Castro.

Times are so bleak for WASPs that there’s not a single one on the Supreme Court. Likewise, in Congress, the percentage of Protestants fell from 74 percent in 1961 to a slim majority of 55 percent today. Neither the current Speaker of the House (John Boehner: Catholic) nor the Senate majority leader (Harry Reid: Mormon) is WASP.

I’m sincerely not gloating. And my jibes are in jest. But what I’m happy about is that our two major political parties are increasingly reflecting the new face of America. {snip}

{snip}

There’s little doubt that we will see more diverse presidential candidates. And we will likely see in the not too distant future a president who is Latino, Asian, Jewish, Sikh or Muslim. (That screaming sound you might have heard was Michele Bachmann shrieking in horror at the idea of a Muslim-American president.)

This is a testament to our nation. We are by our very nature progressive. It may take years, or even decades, to see change, but we always march forward, not back.

{snip}