Does it ever matter?

Hegemony is the idea of dominance that was brought upon by consent as opposed to force. Rather than simply explaining how a culture could dominate another, let’s look at how one culture dominated another. Christianity, the majority of people living in the United States belong to this religion. Every single one of our presidents has been a Christian. Some candidates even flaunt their faith as a reason for their nomination. We, by which I mean those of us that still think our votes affect the election, choose one out of two or three people to lead the country for two years. The main problem with this is the fact that all the candidates are the same. Until recently, all the candidates would be white males. Unlikely that someone who doesn’t fir that criteria would even be taken seriously, let alone win the nomination, even then it would be unlikely for that person to win the election.

While we thought the common link between candidates was their gender and skin color, of course Clinton and Obama have disproved this since both have a possible chance at becoming the president, but what is then common link then? They are all Christians. For some reason, we as a nation have agreed that not just religion, but a religion that the majority follows is a major qualification for the president. We didn’t even see it happening, at first it was all that was available, most people that came to this country in the colonial era were Christians. Since each president was a Christian, why should we want another one? The whole idea behind hegemony is people saying “hey, we got a good thing going on here.”

The status quo is so locked into our minds that we can’t even conceive the idea of an Atheist president. Rather than focusing on the issues, people would question his moral background and the fanatics would sooner hang him from a tree than even hear him debate. The Christian dominance exists all around us. The “War on Christmas” is often covered on the news, but they seem to sway more towards the religious rather than someone simple protest. Perhaps they are afraid, or perhaps they are biased to the religion they belong to, either way it continues.Marx said “religion was the opium of the masses.” It has warped the judgment of the population. While out candidates may look different and may spin the same word in a charming tone, they are all clones.