Last night, Bill O'Reilly explained that Hillary Clinton has a leg up in the 2016 general election even though the country is in a sorry state thanks to Barack Obama's leadership. Why? Well, because "if you're a Christian or a white man in the USA, it's open season on you. Therefore, Hillary Clinton has an advantage," he said Monday night on his Fox show, The O'Reilly Factor.
O'Reilly didn't cite any specific examples of Christians or white men coming under attack, but he argued that the massive advantage provided by her gender means "she can run a general campaign" while "it will take a very articulate and tough-minded" Republican to defeat her.
Under the circumstances, the truly remarkable thing is that white men have actually achieved an enormous amount in the United States despite the alleged open-season conditions under which we suffer.
Consider:
- The speaker of the House (John Boehner) and the majority leader (Mitch McConnell) of the US Senate are both white men.*
- Every House committee is chaired by a white man.
- 19 out of 21 Senate committees are chaired by white men.
- More than 70 percent of Fortune 500 board of directors members are white men.
- Over 80 percent of currently serving governors are white men.
- 23 of the Fortune 500 companies have a woman CEO.
- Four of the Fortune 500 companies have an African-American CEO.
Given that track record of success, I think it's at least possible that a Jeb Bush or a Scott Walker could join the list of white men who've triumphed against the odds. But if not, there's always Marco Rubio.
* Correction: This post originally said Harry Reid is Majority Leader of the Senate. In fact, starting in 2015 Reid is the Minority Leader and Mitch McConnell is the Majority Leader.
