Finding an old op-ed piece about who can become president
February 3, 2016 6:06 AM   Subscribe

I'm looking for a particular op-ed piece which I believe was written in the 1950s. I remember it was described as a "famous piece" and was being discussed back when Reagan was looking to become president. As I remembered it, the opinion piece did not take an overtly bigoted stand, but said Americans would not elect Catholics, Jews, blacks, women, those who have divorced, those from Southern or Eastern Europe, etc. I believe it boiled down the number of "acceptable" candidates to several hundred.

I believe the piece was bemoaning how we so greatly limited our choices. Of course, by the time of Reagan, Kennedy had succeeded in violating one of its prohibitions in being Catholic and soon Reagan would violate another in being divorced. I was trying to find this article. I wanted to find this because I wonder whether we still have some remnants of holding on to a ruling class. I wonder if any successful candidate has violated two of its taboos.
posted by dances_with_sneetches to Society & Culture (3 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is from 2003, not the 1950s. However, it ticks so many boxes from your description that I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you were mistaken about the date.
posted by janerica at 11:14 AM on February 3, 2016


I wonder if any successful candidate has violated two of its taboos.

Is this your real question? Because obviously Obama is both black and had a history of pot use. Those would both be strikes against him according to the op ed you describe.
posted by axiom at 4:37 PM on February 3, 2016


Response by poster: Pot use was not one of them as I recall. And it was the 1950s because it talked of the prohibition against Catholics.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:28 PM on February 3, 2016


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