Politics is the new black
It can’t be just my imagination or the circles I travel in. I think that the 2008 election has actually made politics cool again. Maybe politics was never cool, or only in the 1960s. The presidential candidates were more than just “historic” – they made the election worth watching. We followed their stories and felt strongly about them, as if we were the audience on “The Truman Show.” And yet no one provided the instant replay fodder that Howard Dean did this time around, so we ended up laughing less at the candidates than with them (with the notable exception of Sarah Palin).
As disappointed as I was at John Kerry’s loss in 2004 and Al Gore’s Supreme Court problem in 2000, those candidates were much more better at their day jobs than at being candidates for the presidency. As Jon Stewart commented upon seeing Al Gore, dancing and drenched in sweat at Jon Bon Jovi’s party, “we would have voted for THAT guy!” And once I saw John Kerry interviewed by Stewart during the runup to the 2004 election, hearing Kerry’s hesitating speech and awkward desire to connect with the younger generation, a part of me knew that all was lost. It’s no wonder that the George W. Bush of 2000 interested moderate voters. All of us would probably rather vote for a person that we’d like to have a beer with AND agree with, but in a weak field of contenders, some of us would choose the fun beer buddy and ignore the rest.
Barack Obama’s win was magnificent, particularly coming after his long-shot chances at the beginning of the race. The way he brought people together and mobilized, orchestrating one of the greatest examples of true community organizing to make the win happen, may never be repeated on this grand scale. But I’m also thinking about Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire win that was attributed to her tears and uncharacteristic show of vulnerability. The media discussion of her tears and how genuine they were lasted longer than Neiman Marcus-gate did for Sarah Palin.
Every day I drive along the Pacific Coast highway in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Santa Monica, and see workers returning to their communities at the end of the day. Most are Latino men in semi-rusted trucks that saw better days during the Clinton administration. Rakes, hoses, and lawn mowers stick up from their flat beds, tool boxes sometimes sit behind the driver and his crew in the front seat. I get to observe them for long periods of time since the red lights last forever. Along with decals of Calvin and Hobbes kneeling before a cross, many of the men with Obama decals and stickers on their trucks. I’m guessing that not all of them can vote yet. But it looks as if they are eager to.
A family member teaches public high school in Hollywood and told me that campaign gear for the Obama-Biden ticket, particularly the Shepard Fairey image of Barack Obama’s face, is viewed with reverence. The students are mostly Latino and African American kids from poor households. She was giving T-shirts and stickers away as prizes for answering questions about the presidential and vice-presidential debates. She left the materials in plain view, and they could easily have been stolen at any time. But the kids said they wanted to win the goods fairly, and took care to ace the civics quizzes. And, being Los Angeles kids, they displayed their winnings, even the dorky Obama and Biden heads on a magnet, as proudly as they would the newest designer gadgets and clothes.
