Barack Obama

You know, can the better, in my mind, can that better story win?

And I think that after World War II, you and I are basically the same generation.

We grew up in a monoculture.

And as flawed as it was, with TV and Walter Cronkite, we were all watching the same things.

We were seeing the same things.

We were listening to the same things.

There were groups that weren't represented.

There was bias in it.

Women didn't have power and were stereotyped in all kinds of awful ways.

The LGBT community was just invisible and forced in the closet.

There was all kinds of flaws to it, but there was a common narrative that said,

yeah, we can all pledge allegiance to the flag.

We can all feel that we are full-fledged, true-blooded Americans because we believe in these ideals.

And what you're seeing right now is a reassertion of this idea of like, nope, if you don't look a certain way, you don't think a certain way, you don't,

Practice a certain faith.

You know, you're not a real American.

And I started to see this during my – that's what birtherism was about, right?

Yeah, yeah.

That's what – when Sarah Palin was talking about real Americans versus, I guess, the unreal Americans.

It was that that was already boiling over.