More Than Muppets: A Case for Sesame Street

I love Sesame Street. I love its puppetry, parodies, and positive messaging on educational and moral topics. It was equally entertaining as it was informative, teaching lessons of sharing, acceptance, inclusion, and empathy. It is everything that conservatives hate, which is why they’ve been trying to dismantle this television institution for decades.

In 1969, the Children’s Television Workshop debuted Sesame Street. The show combined puppets, live-action skits on a city street, and colorful...