Identity Politics

It was 1982 when Anthony S. became the president of my high school's student body. I don't remember his platform but he was the star quarterback on our football team, and he was pretty cute too. He went off to study law at an Ivy League school. A very smart, athletic guy who had great luck with the ladies. What's not to love?

But we're not in high school any more, are we?

Like it or not, though we do find ourselves in the midst of a non-partisan identity party! Obama! Hillary! Sarah! This is certainly not new. In part, it is human nature to be attracted to the candidate we're um, attracted to.

When George W. "won" in 2000 he had the rare distinction of also being voted the president with whom we most wanted to hang out and have a beer.

So what we're seeing today is not really all that different.

I read an interesting tid-bit from Michael Moore yesterday which is bothering me the more I think about it. He writes in his blog:

But before everyone gets all smug and self-righteous about the Palin selection, remember where you live. You live in a nation of gun owners and hunters. You live in a country where one out of three girls get pregnant before they are 20. You live in a nation of C students. Knocking Bush for being a C student only endeared him to the nation of C students. Knock Palin for having kids, for having a kid who's having a baby, for anything that is part of her normalness -- a normalness that looks very familiar to so many millions of Americans -- well, you do this at your own peril. Assuming she's still on the ticket two weeks from now, she will be a much tougher opponent than anyone expects.

What this does is remind me of the truth of what's going on just beneath the surface for ALL of us. Remembering this keeps me honest and more importantly keeps me from being complacent.

We can't afford to do smug and self-righteous. Not this time.

I think I'll go Google Anthony and see how that story turned out...