Almost there, America

Last Tuesday’s primary elections, which took place in 10 states across the country, were marked by impressive progress on the electing-women-to-high-political-office front.

In California, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina won the Republican nominations for governor and U.S. Senate, respectively.

Fiorina will face Sen. Barbara Boxer in the fall, which underscores the fact that, regardless of who wins the race, the country’s largest state will continue to be represented by two women in the Senate.

In South Carolina, state Rep. Nikki Haley, a Tea Party favorite, overcame allegations of an extramarital affair to win the GOP nomination for governor.

And in Nevada, former state Rep. Sharron Angle, another Tea Party favorite, won the GOP nod to face Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November.

As these results indicate, Americans of all political stripes are becoming increasingly comfortable with electing women to powerful political posts, as well we should.

After all, voters should not take into consideration characteristics irrelevant to the office in question.

Some continue to recoil at the idea of having women in such powerful positions out of a concern that they will be insufficiently tough or determined.

This sort of thinking is, however, an obvious form of voter laziness. People who take the time to read an article or two about the candidates from whom they are choosing should be able to tell who will or won’t be tough — and doing so would remind them that tough, self-assured women are just as easy to come by as are wimpy, indecisive men.

This seems to have occurred to most voters, as indicated by the ever-growing proportions of women in governorships, Senate seats and other posts, but we wonder whether there isn’t still one more yet-to-be-demolished mental barrier in sight.

As then-Senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s calculated pivot toward a hawkish stance on national security demonstrated a few years ago, many voters continue to have a hard time getting used to the idea of having a testosterone deficit anywhere near those fabled nuclear launch codes.

We hope that, in the near future, all Americans will come to understand that one must judge candidates based not on the traits with which they are born, but on the characteristics they cultivate.