Sunny Days, Chasing the Clouds Away

I was listening to The Diane Rehm Show this morning, and the second half of the program featured Michael Davis, a former senior editor of TV Guide who’s written a book about Sesame Street called Street Gang. After reading a transcript of the scene in which it has to be explained to Big Bird that Mister Hooper has died (and yes, I sat in my cubicle and cried like a baby), Davis posited a theory about the election of Barack Obama. The mid-twenty to late-thirty-somethings who voted overwhelmingly for Obama got some of their first exposure to inter- and intra-personal relationships by watching Sesame Street, which is set in a peaceful, multi-cultural, multi-racial neighborhood where relationships between people of different backgrounds is treated as a natural thing and not used for dramatic or comedic tension. The people on Sesame Street respect and love each other, learn from each other, and support each other. There is no fear of “The Other” on Sesame Street.

Davis believes that Barack Obama could not have won this election without the support of people who figuratively grew up on Sesame Street. I don’t know if he’s right, but I think it’s an absolutely wonderful theory.