Haley, Hillary: Why Texas Will Produce Female President
First Female President will be a Texan or at least from the West
The first female president will not come from the Deep South or New England. She will not come from California or the Pacific Northwest.
The first female president will come from Texas or the West.
The shared problem of Nikki Haley and Hillary Clinton (aside from policy) is that they were both uncomfortable being women in the rough and tumble male-dominated world of politics.
Haley and Hillary would have insisted otherwise but they were both obsessed with their gender. Haley was always talking about kicking in high heels and Hillary famously had the “glass ceiling” confetti that never fell at her would-be victory party in 2016.
This is the residue of the idea of the proper Puritan and Cavalier ‘lady’ that still influences so much of culture in Yankee and Dixie life. It descends from an era of greater social differences between the sexes.
The first female president will come from Texas or the Western states because of their long tradition of strong women, who are more comfortable around men and have worked alongside them on ranches and agricultural settings.
(Portrait of Ann Richards on a Texas ranch| produced by AI)
Texas has a great history of female ranch owners. Governor Ann Richards, a country girl from outside Austin, was obviously descended from this tradition.
One could easily picture Richards with a six shooter on her hip, calling cattle, and giving orders to rowdy ranch hands in the Texas panhandle.
(Portrait of a pistol toting Ann Richards in front of several cowboys in the Old West| produced by AI)
You can feel the ranch woman personality in all of her public appearances as she ascended the political ladder in the 80s and 90s.
Richards’ 1990 campaign for Governor demonstrated a mastery of high intensity, high impact campaigning; a type of campaigning that is almost exclusively executed by males.
(June 9, 1990| Texas Gubernatorial Race| Ann Richards keynote address at the Democratic party convention in Texas, Fort Worth Convention Center)
Her 1990 Texas Democrat Convention speech in Fort Worth should be considered a model for any woman running for office. Richards’ is relentless on her opponent, Claytie Williams’ record.
(June 9, 1990| Texas Gubernatorial Race| Ann Richards keynote address at the Democratic party convention in Texas, Fort Worth Convention Center)
She stays sharply on a populist message. Foreshadowing the Trump campaign of 2016 and 2024, she talks frankly about cracking down on crime to prevent “some junkie from breaking into our houses and stealing our T.V. set.”
She signals her support for cutting government red tape and boosting domestic manufacturing. “I am sick of reading newspaper stories of business lost in Texas that is going to foreign countries,” Richards said, “We should be exporting Texas products to foreign countries, not Texas jobs.”
Richards talks in the way regular people speak to each other and she highlights issues an average person thinks about like crime, jobs, and schools. Moreover, she ties each issue back to an inadequacy in her opponent’s record.
(Portrait of Ann Richards laughing with cowboys around a poker table| produced by AI)
Aside from policy, part of Richards’ genius is a trait that would be reflected by most Western state women, she is comfortable with humor–– especially blue humor.
Richards loved a dirty joke. She told them all the time. One insult attributed to Richards is that she accused a man of being “too stupid to organize a circle jerk.”
When dirty jokes weren’t right for the occasion, she was still devestatingly funny, like when she accused Vice President Goerge H.W. Bush of being “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”
Can anyone picture Haley or Hillary making a joke about circle jerks–– or anything–– and having it be anything other than massively uncomfortable?
Most importantly, in 1990, Richards’ treated her gender in the way Margaret Thatcher did. Her gender was incidental to her campaign, not the focus of it.
When Williams brought up the fact that he was not comfortable running against a woman, Richards said she was not trying to be his mother, she was trying to be governor of Texas. Then, she moved on.
In this instance, Richards did not seek out the protection of a man. She did not depend on Chris Christie to come to her defence like Haley at the University of Alabama primary debates and she did not run to the media to protect her like Haley did with Don Lemon.
She did not cry “sexism” incessantly like Hillary.
She punched back hard, like a cowgirl might, and kept moving.
Beyond just being from a western state, the first female president will not be a girl from the white middle class or economic elite.
White middle class girls have a persistent problem with self expression. (See Taylor Swift’s Netflix documentary for more information.)
Dissimilarly, no one has ever accused a black girl, latina, working class or cowgirl of being unable to express themselves. If you can dodge kicks from a mule, you can handle a mean word or two.
Western state women seem dually more comfortable around men and with their ability to exercise their strenth with men.
When this female candidate arises, you can expect widespread support among the western states. One can not forget that Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote and Texas and Wyoming (simultaneously) were the first two states to elect female governors.
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