Finally, A President Who Looks Like Me!

Strange to say? Well, it struck me while I watched Barack Obama voting on television yesterday. I saw a family, young and vital, made up of believers in the possibility of a better society. A smiling man of shining intelligence. A beautiful, well-spoken wife, with whom he seems to actually be in love. And two young children who seem like...young children. I'm so tired of white-haired white men, with their brittle, officious wives. My patience has been exhausted by the moralizing, proselytizing, and pandering displays of religiosity in presidential and vice-presidential candidates -- conservatives and supposed progressives alike (most of them Christians, but one particular odious Jew comes to mind). Finally, someone has won the White House with only a modicum of the watering down of his standards, his stature, and his stances. (And you know what? Now that it's over, maybe some of us can admit that a man like Jeremiah Wright has seen some pretty good reasons in his lifetime to express rage toward the nation that routinely condoned the murders of people just like him.)

I'm not blind, and I'm not deluded. I don't expect anybody to embrace me as their soul brother. But in his unabashed belief in education over glorified ignorance, in wisdom over warmongering, in humanism over denominational hubris, in effort over expedience, and in service over self-interest Barack Obama is the first president in my lifetime who resembles me and the people I know. And the fact that he looks so very different from, and so very foreign to, so many of the people who are terrified of him and everything he represents probably gives us the best chance we'll have in my lifetime of helping some of them past the roadblocks that have stood in the way of their own intellectual and emotional development. Hopefully enough of them will open their hearts and minds to the miracle of what's just happened to allow all of us to take a very large step away from the regressive path we've been on for too long, and to move forward in the direction we're all meant to go: into the future.

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election

Comments

[tweedy54]

Great, insightful post!
Thanks...

[nowarpleez]

Evan you are a soul brother!

[rjallen71]

Thank you for that wonderful insight! It's funny but it was also on my mind that night when they announced it on TV, one of the best news I'll hear in my lifetime. I hope you keep blogging, your posts are fantastic to read.

[lbatgrl]

I love your post because as Obama was speaking I too was thinking that he is just like me and I am a 39 year old single white woman, half French, half Ohio raised in GA and living in CA...

[GretaR]

Well articulated, Mr. Handler! Spot on, IMO. ...However, we cannot be too comfortable thinking that America has progressed...only about 53% of America has progressed. There remains a _huge_ percentage who still don't get it. (And, those Americans who did not vote, clearly have not progressed.)

[shazaam72]

Greta.

I don't think it is fair to say only 53% of America has progressed. As an independent, I voted for Obama this election, but Republican supporters have a right to vote as they wish. Having a society vote just one way would be bad as a whole. Also, saying they don't get it is a bit myopic. Sure, a fair percentage of those who voted for McCain couldn't bring themselves to vote for a black person or are against gay marriage, but many others voted that way due to Republican ideals such as a fiscally responsible government, etc.

The problem, of course, is that the GOP doesn't mean what they say anymore. They don't follow their marketing message. Meanwhile, the Democrats have actually evolved the past 16 years, governing from a more centric position. In that sense, yes, some people don't get it. The old marketing messages of "Democrats tax and spend" and "Republicans don't" still hold sway over many, but that message simply isn't true anymore, especially with Bush's policy decisions.

Anyway, I guess my point is diversity of thought is a good thing. Keep in mind, there are socially conservative democrats that oppose gay marriage, just as Log Cabin Republicans are gay advocates. And some Republican ideals are effectual. It's just that the Ds employ them more effectively than the Rs do right now.

Peace and bananas.

[TheFierceUrgency]

Greta and Shazaam...I think I'm somewhere between the two of you.

I agree, you cant assume that the total other 47% havent progressed, but I think there's a good chunk of them that give cause for concern. A little background...I have occasionally had to vote for candidates that I didnt feel passionately about but best represented my ideals...Gore and Kerry are both the most recent examples...so I know that feeling for Republicans and some Independents this cycle. But for me, this election had a deal breaker that I had hoped to see massly rejected and that was McCains VP choice. I'm not going to pile on the criticism of her...that case is avalanching everyday even post election.

The deal breaker for me was how his decision was made (not his choice, not well thought out and never apologetic for it) This was blatant violation of his own declared creed of Country First. So my issue with the 47% is how could they in good faith support such an obvious compromised decision and put our country in the hands of such a mandate for four years.

That said, I believe this decision had to be this obvious for us as a country for us to get it right...so every thing happens for a reason. So overall, I'm highly encouraged that good wins the day and as a country we made a great decision for our country and our world.

[Sparty1]

Evan,

That was a great post. I often wonder why some people in our great land are as you say, terrified of Barack Obama simply because of the color of his skin. I also wonder why those same people are also supposedly the most religious people out there. There's obviously some disconnect in the word they're receiving from the pastor on Sunday.

Oh and that comment about those brittle wives was spot on.

[mtmjr]

Of all the blogs I've read today, for some reason this hits homes the most.

I was watching the election with 8 or 10 like-minded friends in Los Angeles, and we all knew for sure by about 7:30 what the outcome was going to be, and figured they were just waiting to call it until the West Coast polls were closed. So come 7:59, CNN has this ticker on the screen saying how long until the California polls close, and it's ticking down the seconds, and we start counting down, like on New Year's. And then it hits zero, and they put up there "CNN Prediction" graphic, and we all start whooping and hollering and weeping. Literally weeping. I think all of us in that room (and none of us, except my friend's 3-year-old daughter who has one Black grandparent) were African-American in any way. But we all felt, in that moment, exactly what Evan felt. "Finally a President who looks like me."

What an effing amazing night!

[MrsKohler]

Evan, great ideas! I wondered if I was the only one who thought about Reverend Wright and many other african americans having the right to be pissed off about what was done to their people. It's easy to judge, but I'm *Jewish* and hey, I'm still angry about having built the pyramids...and that was way longer ago. In all seriousness, I'm happy to see a Husband and Wife who are happy and in love and truly love their children unconditionally. I think that is much better of an example than forcing two teenagers to get married because they are expecting.

PS- I love, love, love Californication---I know David is newly single...He's so hot- tell him to give me a call. I'll help him get over it.

[LeftCoastLefthandedLefty]

Evan,

You are my soul brother.

I get exactly what you are talking about with President-elect Obama's family.

People all across this country, of all racial, ethnic, and religeous stripes, were sick and tired of the way politicians had been packaged, It almost seemed like unless you carried yourself in that hollier than thou you were dismissed out of hand as the "wrong kind of people"

Unrelated topic: The Mrs. and I love your work on Californication!!!!

[littlebrowngirl]

thios election was not about good against evil or the white hat good guy and the black hat bad guy like the Republicans tried to play it.

The election, I think was about putting an end to anti-intellectual politics, and against the us against them tactics. We do indeed rise and fall together as one nation and Americans basically took their country back from people who were so busy benifiting themselves rather than actually working for their country.

Hope has risen anew today and we can now move forward. I love this country and I am so praod that people stood up and took it back today.

Obama 08

[Lorifromky]

Beautifully written. There are, unfortunately, pockets of hate in this nation that will only be strengthened by Obama's win. A person my husband works with said that he will no longer stand for the National Anthem when Obama is President. This person did not graduate high school and has been a manual laborer all of his life, just like his wife, who of course, feels the same way as her husband. They are the face of the Republican Party, and I take comfort in knowing they are a dieing breed.

[Smirk]

Spot on, Mr. Handler, spot on!

[geejay]

"I don't expect anybody to embrace me as their soul brother."

Consider yourself embraced!

[LenaJohnson]

He stole my heart again when he said that his girls will get a puppy! Truly human and best example!

[charlygardel]

I couldn't agree more. I'm a 40 y/o white man from the upper midwest, married to a 39 y/o woman from Chile, with our beautiful 9 y/o daughter born in San Francisco. We live in Oklahoma. We know hope.