When will America have a female president with a beard?

A Hebrew version of this post was published earlier this week by Maariv daily.

Visitors to Westfield, in the westernmost part of the State of New York, really should go and see the modest statue that was erected to commemorate the meeting between President Abraham Lincoln and local resident Grace Bedell in 1861. Lincoln was the new president-elect, making his way from his home, in the State of Illinois, to his inauguration in Washington. Bedell was just over 12 years old, a girl who had, four months earlier, sent Lincoln a letter that changed American history. “Your face is so thin,” she wrote. She suggested that he would “look a great deal better” with a beard. Lincoln was still beardless as a candidate. He then became America’s first bearded President. An important accomplishment, but by no means not his only one. He was also the first assassinated President. But he wasn’t the first one to die in office – that honor goes to William Harry Harrison, who passed away 32 days into office.

Andrew Jackson, America’s 7^th President, was the first President from the west – Jackson was from Tennessee, which was then a western state. He too has many other accomplishments to his name. JFK was the first catholic president. This was an important precedent, but he did far more meaningful things than setting it. James Buchanan, considered to be one of the worst presidents of all time, was the first bachelor to hold the position – and the only one to date. Historians are still debating whether he was also the first gay president. He lived for many years with Alabama Senator William Rufus King, and several sources from the period suggest that their relationship went beyond mere friendship – in one letter, a senior Democratic politician refers to King as Buchanan’s “wife.” In any case, the US still hasn’t had an openly gay president. That day will surely come too.

Precedents are an important thing. They change social perceptions and supply a president with an immediate accomplishment, clear and visible to all. Barack Obama is the first Black President. That’s an important achievement, one that is beyond argument. One can debate his other accomplishments – Is Obamacare an achievement or a flop, has his foreign policy saved America or has it drowned it, is his attitude towards the police just or is it lethal? It’s easier to reach a timeless milestone, an achievement that is beyond argument, by setting a demographic precedent. It’s harder to do so by devising policy.      

Thus, there is a lot of magic to Hillary Clinton becoming the first serious female nominee for President of the United States. Like in Obama’s case, if Clinton will be elected, getting the job would already be her first meaningful achievement. Whatever she does later, she will forever be the first female President. Harrison – the first to die in office – didn’t do anything besides dying quickly. Lincoln did a whole lot more besides growing a beard and getting assassinated. There is magic about Hillary’s nomination, like there will be when Israel chooses its first Mizrachi, religious, or gay Prime Minister. (We still haven’t had a Prime Minister with a beard, unless you retroactively count Ehud Barak’s beard, grown after leaving office.)   

There is some magic about setting precedents, but there is also some risk to them. They steer the conversation away from the political debate, away from questions of policy and competence and into the realm of identities and symbols. In the United States, according to the constitution, the President’s role is “executive.” But what is expressed in the constitution is not always felt by the citizens. They go to the ballot to choose a leader, to take a stance. And since it isn’t always easy for them to understand the complexities surrounding the use of armed forces, or form a well-balanced opinion about trade agreements, choosing a historical precedent is a natural, understandable impulse: We chose the first black president, now we will choose the first female president. Then there will be the first latino President, the first Jew, the first lesbian, the first transgender, the first Hindu, the first doctor. Yes – America has had a President who went to Med-school, but not one who finished it.