The glory of each generation is to make its own precedents.
Belva Ann is the candidate of Peace and Justice. She stands for co-operation with other nations under the guidance of international law, and for economic and social justice in our domestic affairs. She is in fact the ideal candidate for our times.
She does, however, face rather formidable hurdles....
First and foremost Belva's battle is with public perception. The press ridicules her mercilessly for being a "vanity" candidate, a charlatan and a shmooze hound. While a decent education and a successful career as a lawyer would typically count as qualifications for public service, in Belva's case, given her shady associations and questionable dealings in the past, it serves more as an affirmation of her self-serving, duplicitous nature in the public's mind.
Belva's prior associations with loose women, loose canons, loose screws, transvestites and the like would not doom her, perhaps, were it not for the sticky business of her unorthodox political views on the institution of marriage. The electorate simply will not accept abominations like polygamy or polyandry or what have you as either legitimate or Christian. That's a political fact. We progressives entertain such notions for the sake of discussion, but in the political sphere surely it is an exercise in frivolity. No person, regardless of gender, who espoused Belva's views on marriage could be elected President in today's climate of public opinion.
To be fair, Belva is herself not a practicing polygamist. Indeed her views on the matter are not so cut and dried as one might suppose. Nevertheless in politics it is one's reputation which matters, and Belva's reputation is frankly besmirched.
Finally, there is the matter of actually gaining access to the ballot. It appears at this late date as if Belva's supporters will have to settle for a write-in campaign this time around. Such campaigns are rarely successful. Of course there is also the matter of her being stone cold dead. On that count, however, there are precedents of a sort--we must admit that Belva's stone cold deadness is stonier and colder than any that have preceeded her and actually won office. Being a matter of degrees, and not substance, that hardly seems like a genuine impediment. As I'm sure Belva would say were she here today, "If not now, when?"
Belva Ann Lockwood for President!
And check here over the coming months to see whether she earns NOW's endorsement.