Our Favorite Celebrity Tributes For The 10 Year Anniversary Of Obama’s Election

It’s hard to remember, but there was a time when American politics was not a pit of complete despair. There was a time when it seemed like things were moving in the right direction. When the newly elected President of the United States had a background in politics and not reality television. A time when important international policy decisions weren’t announce via Game of Thrones meme on Twitter. A time when America’s motto was “Yes We Can” and not “Omfg Look What We Did.” I’m talking, of course, about the 2008 election of Barack Obama, which was a casual 10 years ago as of yesterday. Yeah. Let that sink in.

Obviously, our favorite celebs joined in to celebrate/cry over this momentous occasion. Here were our fav reactions:

Ava DuVernay

 

Pete Souza

 

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An unpublished photograph from ten years ago tonight: President-elect Barack Obama with daughter Malia on election night in Chicago. I had spent a couple of years documenting his first two years (2005-2006) in the Senate and the first few months of his Presidential campaign in 2007 for the Chicago Tribune. But then I quit the Tribune to teach photojournalism at Ohio University and only covered a few campaign events in 2008. On November 4, 2008, I flew up to Chicago, and through tears, photographed the celebration. I remember a photographer-friend said to me that night, “I’m so glad I am alive to see this happen.” He, too, had tears in his eyes. And little did I know that just a couple of months later I would receive a phone call that would change my life.

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Kal Pen

Common

And, of course…

Barack Obama

 

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As I reflect on election night ten years ago today, I can’t help but think about where my political career started. I wasn’t running for office. I was running a voter-registration drive in Chicago. What I learned then — and what would become the premise of my 2008 campaign — was that you couldn’t just fight for existing votes. You had to reach out to all of these people who had lost faith and lost trust, and get them off the sidelines. So during our first campaign, when I started seeing all these stories about record turnout in communities all over the country — from young people in line for hours in Iowa to elderly folks in lawn chairs down in Florida — I knew that we had shown what is possible when everybody decides to participate. And that, in and of itself, gave people a sense of their own power — their own agency in the kind of country we want to leave for our kids. When more people get off the sidelines and decide to participate, our country becomes a little more representative of its people — of everyone’s collective decision. And American politics can change as a result. So on Election Day this Tuesday, I’m not just asking you to vote. I’m asking you to really show up once again. Talk with your friends, convince some new voters, and get them out to vote because then something powerful happens. Change happens. Hope happens. And with each new step we take in the direction of fairness, and justice, and equality, and opportunity, hope spreads.

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Want to feel this way after an election again? Might we suggest voting in tomorrow’s midterm elections?

Find out all the info you need to vote in the midterms here.

Heads up, you need to keep up with the news. It’s not cute anymore. That’s why we’ve created a 5x weekly newsletter called The ‘Sup that will explain all the news of the week in a hilarious af way. Because if we weren’t laughing, we’d be crying. Sign up for The ‘Sup now!

Is This New Ted Cruz Ad An Example Of Toxic Masculinity?

Like Taylor Swift, the college acquaintances you haven’t spoken to in years, and your mom’s best friend, filmmaker Richard Linklater is getting in on the get out the vote action. Civic engagement, so hot right now! Linklater’s contribution is a new anti-Ted Cruz ad ahead of his race against Beto O’ Rourke, noted hot progressive skateboarder. He also has like, good policies and sh*t.

This moment of pettiness, meanness, partisanship, and division will be met by the kindness, courage, strength, leadership, and big heart of Texas. pic.twitter.com/6kAXZSRosS

— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 11, 2018

RealClearPolitics’ running poll has Cruz ahead by 6 points, which is disappointing since he is not only a misogynistic anti-abortion crusader but also probably the Zodiac killer. (But the polls also said Hillary would win so like, whatever.) Cruz continued to support Trump despite the fact that he insulted his wife and said his dad killed JFK (maybe?), which, according to this as, is  not what a true Texan man would do. The ad aggressively relies on tropes of toxic masculinity to convince toxically masculine Texas men that Ted Cruz isn’t toxically masculine enough to truly represent them, which is an argument that feels a little more 1990 than 2018. Linklater is most famous for Dazed and Confused, so ok.

The ad mocks Cruz’s “Tough as Texas” slogan by calling out Cruz’s deeply weak response to Trump’s straight up savage takedowns of Cruz during the 2016 election. Which, again, were calling Cruz’s wife ugly and inexplicably insinuating that Cruz’s father was involved in the Kennedy assassination. (But again…maybe?)

Actor Sonny Carl Davis reprises his role from the film Bernie as an archetypal Texan man laying out the rules of Texas, but this time he’s talking about how Ted Cruz is not man enough to represent Texas, because he hasn’t tried to physically fight Trump. He says:

“If somebody called my wife a dog and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn’t be kissing their ass,” Davis’s character says. “You stick a finger in their chest and give ’em a few choice words. Or you drag their ass out by the woodshed and kick their ass, Ted.”

To be honest, the sight of an elderly white man with a southern accent telling me to do anything is pretty triggering after the Kavanaugh hearings. In a state where the Latinx population increased by over 200,000 last year and the state population is expected to not be majority white by 2022, it’s unclear whether this is the best strategy. However, I’m always here for incitements to violence against Trump, so I’ll let it slide.

Watch the ad for yourself below:

Heads up, you need to keep up with the news. It’s not cute anymore. That’s why we’ve created a 5x weekly newsletter called The ‘Sup that will explain all the news of the week in a hilarious af way. Because if we weren’t laughing, we’d be crying. Sign up for The ‘Sup now!