America’s Presidential Race America’s First

Back in the year 1997 I embarked on a mission to write a book entitled America’s First.

It was project of fiction that took me three
years to write and finish. It is a political thriller
about a mob family out of Chicago who would
help an African-American Illinois Senator become the country’s first black president.
How prophetic of me to write a work of
fiction that would actually come to fruition
10 years later. Nobody knew of Barack Obama
back in 1997. I don’t even think Barack Obama knew he would be in politics when I began
writing my book back then. Nevertheless, the
book came out in 2000 and Barack became
president in 2008. And history was made.
Now I am faced with making another prediction, but this one is far from being prophetic. It’s called using common sense. If Donald
Trump faces Hillary Clinton in the November
general presidential election, not only will
Hillary become America’s First female president, but another Clinton will remarkably
occupy the White House. Yes, history will be
made twice in America but not throughout
the world. This will be old news for other
parts of the world.
And there have been many political dynasties produced around the globe with more
in the making: yes, Keiko Fujimori will follow
in her dad’s four-term footsteps and become
Peru’s next president. And she will also make
history by becoming this nation’s first female
president.
This is where I implore Dominican Vice
President Margarita Cedeno Fernandez to
pay close attention.
It is in my opinion that she should be highly considered to run in 2020 for the presidency of Dominican Republic. I will address
the why and how she could win in a later column. But for now, she should be paying close
attention to the following women who have
either paved the way in society for women to
be accepted and elected president or those
who are waiting in the wings: can someone
say maybe Michelle Obama after Hillary Clinton. Yes, this could be a trend.
It sure was a trend in a lot of Latin countries almost a decade ago. Wink, wink Margarita. But before we start looking at those models of disaster, let’s take a look at the model
of a successful woman leader in none other
than German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who
made history by becoming the first female
Chancellor of Germany back in 2005. She has
survived every election since, which translates into the majority of people in Germany
believing in her leadership and the job she is
doing. Do you know how hard it is in this day
and age to remain in power for over 10 years.
With corruption running rampid and strange
bedfellows being made at every turn, it is
amazing how this woman has endured even
within her own Christian Democratic Union
party. She is an example of an amazing accomplishment and a model of success.
But the policies that are accepted and
work in Germany may not be accepted in
other parts of the world. How would austerity
work in say Brazil?
Just as Merkel did back in 2005, Dilma
Rousseff made history in 2011, in her native land of Brazil, where she became the first
woman ever to hold the office of president.
An amazing accomplishment considering she
was once jailed back in the 70s for trying to
stage a coup against military dictatorship. She
spent two years in jail during which time she
was reportedly tortured.
Fast forward to 2016 and it seems like the
70s all over again for the former Marxist rebel
who went by the name de guerre Estela before she entered politics and became the country’s first female and 36th president of Brazil.
Now the mood in Brazil has changed
against her as her approval ratings are at
an all-time low with even her political allies
(Worker’s Party) abandoning her and the
governing coalition (Brazilian Democratic
Movement Party or PMDB) has joined forces
with her political foes to try to push through a
bill to either impeach her or void her election.
Basically they want her out and if she doesn’t
resign, the political torture will continue.
Where did it all go wrong for Rousseff. It
all started before her—with the state-run oil
company Petrobras being run by rich old men
for personal and political gain---and it will
continue after she is long gone as the three
men in line to succeed Rousseff are all under
suspicion of having benefited from the Petrobras corruption scheme. Who will save Brazil
if a woman couldn’t?
Now on to one of my favorite soap operas,
entitled “Don’t cry for me Argentina” with former female President Cristina Fernandez who
is being investigated for possible involvement
in a purported scheme to manipulate financial markets to keep the Argentine peso’s value inflated, leading to a plunge in the central
bank reserves. In addition to these charges, a
federal prosecutor is asking a judge to include her in two separate investigation involving
allegations of money laundering and another
one of her close family members is involved
in another corruption probe.
Fernandez was the darling of South America’s political landscape during her eight
years in office. She left office back in December with high approval ratings despite economic woes and links to corruption scandals.
According to news reports, she currently
lives away from the limelight in her home in
the southern province of Santa Cruz, while
waiting to find out if she will be indicted and
face time in prison.
With all of this said, there are a few good
women leaders left who are flying under the
radar in Norway (Prime Minister Erna Solberg) to Poland (Beata Szydlo) and all the way
to Namibia (Saara Kuugongelwa). All facing
their own problems, but none the less governing as a woman in a man’s world.
This brings me back to Hillary Clinton and
Keiko Fujimori. Why would they want to inherit the problems of the men before them such
as in Argentina and Brazil? Or do they believe
they can turn things around and become popular for a long time like Merkel in Germany.
These are all examples for Margarita to
pay close attention to. She will have until the
year 2020 to decide if she will follow in the
footsteps of those who have made history
before her or will she decline to run for the
highest office in her homeland and follow
the script of Michelle Obama and become an
ambassador of goodwill outside of political
office.
Only time will time will tell but if I were
truly a prophet, I would be a betting prophet
that Margarita will become Dominican Republic’s first female president in 2020.