The United States is poised to have either a first African American or woman president and this evokes a sense of legitimate pride and awe that America has its progressive elements. Maybe one day we'll have an atheist president. The sad irony, however, is that the very cultural forces responsible for this long waited change are also regurgitating the same xenophobic traits which society has struggled against.

The bottom line is that if you vote Hillary then you come across as a racist or if you vote Obama you're a sexist. The issues each candidate stands for is drowned out by this stupidity. It's as though the traditionally oppressed groups (women, African Americans, Latinos, etc..) have now morphed into tribal collectives squashing all notion of individual thought. The fact that both candidates will likely be far superior to the current president is immaterial. If you don't adopt a specific rigid set of ideological standards then you are some form of heretic and branded as either racist or sexist. It's no longer oppressive groups struggling for the rights of equality but instead a western variant of tribal warfare between Hutus and Tutsis. And the end result is that this gives cannon fodder for the folks who wish to eliminate all freethinking and skepticism ie. the religious, evangelical far right. And that spells trouble for atheists.

I'm ethnically Indian but I certainly did not have an orgasm when the conservative Indo-American Bobby Jindal became govenor of Louisiana. I disagree completely with the so called idiotic Indian political pundits such as Dinesh D'Souza or Ramesh Ponnuru. Am I a racist or a self-loathing Indian if I supported Christopher Hitchens over Dinesh D'Souza during their debate? It is this kind of shit-headed thinking that unfortunately permeates the mindset of the "enlightened" Left (if you would even call them that).

Would I vote for an atheist candidate simply because he/she is atheist? Of course not! Would I vote for a religious candidate who fully endorsed civil liberties, equality under the law, a fair health care system, avoids unnecessary wars and who places science and reason as the greatest of human endeavors? Hell yes!! But I think it's unllikely that such a candidate would ever emerge.