Make ‘Year of Woman’ inclusive

Even so, Oprah shouldn’t run

What some already are calling “The Year of the Woman” seems to be for real. A year after the Women’s March attracted hundreds of thousands to Washington to protest President Donald Trump, unprecedented numbers of women are considering running (or are actually running) for elective office in 2018.

The tide of sexualassault allegations, and the withering condemnation they inspired, likely have changed forever — and for the better — the way American women can expect to be treated in the workplace and in general.

All but the dimmest of hidebound chauvinists surely understand now that women can’t be ignored, disrespected or wronged without consequences — and that those consequences include losing out on talent, expertise and insight.

This is all good. Any surge in participation in the democratic process makes for a healthier democracy, and more contributions by women, long short-circuited, will add a lot to the nation’s political life.

So far, the movement has come largely from the left. Trump’s deplorable history with women was the spark, and it caught fire fastest among liberals and Democrats.

It would be a shame, though, for 2018 to be only the Year of the Democratic Woman.

If we’ve learned anything over the past train wreck of a year, it is that extreme partisanship makes for lousy governance. Our government needs people across the ideological spectrum to work together to solve problems and ensure that all of America is represented.

On the Democratic side nationally, EMILY’s List has a long history of recruiting and supporting women candidates, and business is booming. In central Ohio, the fledgling Matriots group has already raised $750,000 and plans to endorse women candidates at all levels.

The JoAnn Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute recruits and supports women candidates with conservative views.

While Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have earned much of the criticism they’re getting, Democrats alone don’t have all the answers; America is too diverse for that. If indeed “a new day is on the horizon” for women, as Oprah Winfrey movingly declared in a widely hailed speech at this month’s Golden Globes ceremony, the rising sun has to shine on all of America.

Now, a word about Oprah: Her speech was a masterpiece of inspiration. She deftly addressed the importance of a free press, the end of tolerance for sexual harassment and the value of role models for underprivileged children. It was a rallying cry that will be remembered, with good reason, as great.

But we respectfully ask, no, implore Winfrey and the large portion of the mediaverse she occupies to drop the idea of her running for president. America doesn’t need another TV-celebrity president — not even one who, like Winfrey, is intelligent, charismatic, fundamentally decent and superior to our current president in every conceivable way.

She can and probably will enrich the political process. But America needs a president who knows the political process and how it can be used to ensure freedom and fairness. The rest of the world, largely appalled by Trump, needs to see a return to serious American leadership.