Enter the Sesame Street Generation

It’s November 5, 2008 – the morning after I watched history unfold before my eyes; a monumental win for one Barack Obama, the first African American President-elect of the United States. But amazingly, that seems to me to unduly limit last night’s accomplishment. Of course, I understand I did not live through the civil rights movement. Nor am I a minority. So perhaps, I can’t appreciate as those people can the enormity of what last night means as an issue of race. That assumption I accept. But for me, last night was more about generations than it was about race. For me, last night was a changing of the guard in many senses – a moment that once captured can never be erased or ignored or marginalised in future generations. And perhaps, a moment that, once passed, can never again be fully appreciated beyond the present.

I grew up in a politics that was always defined by cynicism, bitterness, and division. I can vaguely remember the days of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and stories of a much-united nation. I, however, was a little too young to know what it felt like to have a "popular" president. From those days, I can only remember Nancy Reagan’s exhortation at the end of my Artari and Nintendo video games to "Say No to Drugs!" So my political life has always been Bush I, Bill Clinton and Bush II. In other words, in my lifetime, it’s always been about false promises ("Read my lips"), great disappointments (Clinton’s health care), lies ("I did not have sexual relations...."), corruption (can you say Whitewater, Halliburton, et al.?), division politics (Clinton’s impeachment and the religious right), and utter ineptitude (see Bush, period). This is all I know. The other history of our country – accomplishment, unity, progress – has always been just the stuff of text books.
In many ways, and no offense is meant here, this is the politics of cynicism - the hallmark I would argue of my parent’s generation and their politics. And for good reason. They grew up amidst horrible race wars, civil rights violence, the fear of nuclear holocaust, and chronic corruption in government. Their generation saw the proliferation of drugs and gangs in the United States and a shrinking of the middle class. It’s no wonder their politics is punctuated by division and cynicism. With so many broken promises and fear to look back on, it’s no wonder that generation rarely believes anything that comes out of a politician’s mouth. And it’s no wonder the politicians of that generation learned to play that game of politics, because for them, it was the only game in town.

But for me, that stuff is also the stuff of text books. Just like the generation before my parent’s is the stuff of text books. And the story of that generation is a bit different. My grandparent’s saw great hardship and rose above it. They were confronted with a horrifying war, fought it and won it. They dragged this country out of a Great Depression, and in the wake, put this country on the path toward great progress and world power. They elected (three times) a leader that transcended the ages, and his own time, to achieve the greater good for all people. So for me, this other story of my grandparent’s politics is as compelling a historical story as the division and cynicism of my parent’s politics.

And here we are now, my generation has come of age, and the time arrived for us to make a choice. And last night was the culmination of that generational choice. A sound rejection of the politics of our parents and a hope for something more like the politics of our grandparents. Obama echoed the themes of FDR last night in his acceptance speech confirming this rejection: bi-partisanship, strong enlightened leadership, hard work, sacrifice, national service, big ideas, progress, change, a better tomorrow.

I am of what I like to refer to as the Sesame Street Generation. I grew up learning that all people should be treated with civility and respect. That all people, regardless of race, should be included at the table. I grew up learning that it was best to share, to work together, to be friendly, to stand up for the bullied kid, to be honest and forthright, to ignore race or creed or personal differences, to focus instead on the ties that bind us all together. This is doctrine we heard at school, in books and on Sesame Street. And it has taken its toll. At the same time that my parent’s generation continued to be consumed by the division and cynicism that punctuated their political lives, they purposefully imbued in their children the hope of something different and better. They spoke of a colorless, less divided, more united world in what they fed us in Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and in the process gave us the belief system to finally reject their politics.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not parousia. This is not a moment in history that brings about the change by virtue of the moment itself. Instead, it is a step in the direction of a redemption, a rebirth, a renaissance. It is an enormous body blow to the politics of division, negativity, partisanship, and corruption. It is a first break in the clouds for a generation of young people that has only known political rancor and gamesmanship. Indeed it is not the change itself, but that moment in history that makes the change possible. And that possibility is the history that was made yesterday.

In his acceptance speech, Obama asked what our generation might be remembered for 100 years from now. I think, if nothing else, last night is the first tangible sign that our generation will be remembered as the generation that believed it was ok to hope again.