So I was watching Exit Through the Gift Shop, which spends a lot of time on Shepard Fairey's efforts to plaster his OBEY image far and wide, and I thought, wait, don't I know this guy? And moments later the film reminded me that this was the same schmuck who would later create the Obama HOPE poster, because, and I quote:
I have made art opposing the Iraq war for several years, and making art of Obama, who opposed the war from the start, is like making art for peace. I know I have an audience of young art fans and I’m delighted if I can encourage them to see the merits of Barack Obama.
Curious to see how delighted Mr. Art-For-Peace has been feeling after watching President Merit kick the war machine into hyperdrive, I happened across this essay of his from last September:
I support President Obama. I believe he is an intelligent, compassionate person, with many good policy ideas. If Obama runs for reelection in 2012, I will support him.
And while I wish he was more bold in action on issues of most concern to me -- health care, global warming, the war in Afghanistan, Wall Street reform, education, immigration reform -- I realize he is trying to do the best that he can given the obstructionist, "just say no to anything," opposition he faces from the Republicans in Congress.
Yes, it's a crying shame how the Republicans in Congress have forced Obama to massively increase drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, cut backroom deals with pharmaceutical and health care corporations, blackmail countries into accepting his administration's attempts to defer any meaningful response to global warming, wage war in open defiance of not just the Constitution but the War Powers Resolution, persecute whistleblowers with a ferocity that makes Nixon look like a bong-smoking hippie, etc etc etc. Curse you, John Boehner!
You can read the rest if you want, but I warn you that "he is an intelligent, compassionate person, with many good policy ideas" is as deep a political insight as you're going to find. But I did want to highlight this sobering challenge from another Obama defender (writing in response to some grousing malcontents in the comments):
Whatever happened to "Think what you can do for your country?" Instead of whining about what Obama has not achieved, look in the mirror. What have you achieved for Obama?
Man, that stings. What have I achieved for Obama? I haven't backed a Latin American coup, raised a single dime from Wall Street, expanded executive privilege so much as a centimeter, forced any Haitians back to their earthquake- and cholera-stricken hell on earth, shot an unarmed man in the face, lobbied for corporate tax cuts, or blown up even one measly Afghan wedding party. And then I have the audacity to complain when he does it all himself!
So before we presume to criticize Obama any further, let's take a good long look in the mirror and think about what we can do for him. Couldn't we ship a handgun or two to the Israeli army, just so he'll know he's not in this alone? Yes we can!
What have I achieved for Obama? I haven't backed a Latin American coup
I've eaten some bananas, so I assume I've backed a coup attempt or two. Just call me an Achiever For
ChiquitaObama!Posted by: Happy Jack | Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 05:09 PM
Little Obama Urban Achievers.
Posted by: Dog's New Clothes | Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 06:16 PM
*shrug*
Not without cause does the socially-liberal professional class identify with the State. They get their share of perks.
Posted by: Cloud | Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 07:03 PM
I've never understood why "ask not what your country can do for you etc." is supposed to be a good sentiment, because eeeeeuuuugggggh.
As for Shepard Fairey, ugh. He went to RISD and started his whole dumbass Andre the Giant thing here in RI, and yeah, fuck him. That's all.
Posted by: ethan | Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 08:04 PM
Wait a minute, Mr Fairey wants BHO to be bolder on the war in Afghanistan?
Posted by: Jonathan Versen | Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 10:19 PM
Well, this sucks the hope right out of me.
If anyone is going to challenge Obama's propaganda I would have thought it would be an artist whose main message is dissent.
But he sounds just like my "liberal" lawyer friends as he recites the standard excuse for supporting Obama.
Posted by: Walter Wit Man | Wednesday, June 01, 2011 at 11:14 PM
Glad to see you back, John. I hope you're plum out of vacation time for a little while at least.
Posted by: druff | Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 06:11 AM
All the party loyalists who angrily insisted that Obama had every right to start bombing the shit out of Libya without Congressional approval despite there being no threat to the country because the War Powers Act gave him 60 days free rein have grown curiously silent as that deadline passed and now recedes into history.
And speaking of resource plunder, I await their defense of his having folded like a house of cards on wild lands protection as a noble attempt to create jobs.
Posted by: Joe Beese | Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 07:29 AM
John, you're behind the times. It's no longer wedding parties, but houses full of children that are being droned. Of course, those children are hiding Al-Quida militants, so that's okay then.
By the way, the next time you go away for such a long time, I will hunt you down. Withdrawal, yeah, that's what it's like.
Posted by: Catherine | Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 11:04 AM
Alright, this is just straight-up fascist.
Switching from a duty to the country to the duty to the leader? That's as anti-democratic as you can get. Remember when people were saying during the Bush era that Bush is the commander-in-chief of the military, not of the citizens of the U.S.? We've jumped straight passed that and have somehow appointed Obama führer.
I mean, this isn't even liberalish bullshit. This rhetoric doesn't evoke Paine or Jefferson -- it's straight-up right-wing sophistry. It doesn't even feel like we're being encouraged to believe that Obama is progressive in this tripe. If pseudoliberals lose their rhetoric, they have abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Is this guy a random dipshit, or a trend, because if this is a trend, America is about to become blessed beyond belief.
Posted by: No One of Consequence | Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 02:31 PM
And to think this is the guy who once brilliantly plastered Andre the Giant's image over a Buddy Cianci campaign poster. It is sad to see a guy who spent the best part of his career cleverly saying "question authority" end up talking like this.
Posted by: RobK | Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 03:34 PM
Good to have you back and ranting. In your absence I was forced into the depths of the Amazon Sellers Xommunity boards, where the current hot thread is "Do we still need public schools?". Most of the participants think we no longer need public schools, what with the overpaid teachers' union thugs cramming diversity and science and birth control down the kids' throats. I think this is actually a fair sampling of opinion in the US.
We've moved from "Let's get rid of the teachers' unions" to "Let's just get rid of the public schools completely." Even fascists didn't mind schools (yes I know the indoctrination - I think that there were also some fascists who thought that it'd be a good idea for little Johann to know how to read.). I don't know what to call the suicidal American corporatist dunces. I'm wondering if there's been a shift in the rhetoric from the lunatic right in order to make "just" trashing teachers' unions and shoving for-profit management companies into public school buildings seem more "reasonable."
Posted by: QuizmasterChris | Thursday, June 02, 2011 at 06:26 PM
This is very close to double-posting, but I blame John for being on vacation. It's his fault I need to double my rants up.
Again, I think it's a good thing that the rhetoric ramps up. The most powerful asset an evil policy has is mild rhetoric. It allows one to look good and moderate while commiting horrifying acts that rapidly drag down the status quo. People have a natural tendency to prefer a happy medium -- however that is defined -- in any complex set of choices.
So the jackasses Chris described, and the jackass John points out, actually, non-ironically, make me feel better. Their position is not persuasive. Think of it this way: if a dangerous, sexually-abusive, financially-draining cult uses a message of acceptance and mutual support to get its membership, that's scary dangerous -- especially in a depression during a cultural nadir. If that same cult switches to an exclusionary contempt of much of what the mainstream thinks is good about the status quo, combined with a with-us-or-against-us attitude, you breathe a little easier. The latter organization will be hard-pressed to get new converts.
Remember: serviles -- I've taken to calling false liberals or pseudoliberals "serviles" -- want to kiss the ass of an affiable technocrat because they're just as authoritarian as the more obviously rightwing shits they despise. However, weirdly enough, both groups have obsessions with the "feel" of independence: rightwing thugs want to resemble the rugged individualist myth as much as possible while still taking comfort in marching orders received from on high, while the serviles want the more refined feeling of having personal choice while constantly shifting their position to whatever Dear Leader is doing this week. A big part of that personal choice is wrapped up in leader selection. Thus, during the 2008 election, despite the fact the democrats fielded mostly aristocratic, pro-corporate assholes, people claimed that the field was diverse and were happy about the same.
If serviles stop even pretending to care about personal choice or favored instutions like schools (I don't care if rightwing thugs care about schools), why would anyone join them? Where's the mystique? Where's they payoff?
Posted by: No One of Consequence | Friday, June 03, 2011 at 12:29 AM
Sellouts? You want sellouts? Why, we just happen to have:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/06/bribes-work-peterson-institute-donations-turning-nominally-liberal-foundations-to-the-right.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
Posted by: lacp | Friday, June 03, 2011 at 05:35 AM
The grief that does not speak whispers the o'er fraught heart and bids it break!
Posted by: LT | Friday, June 03, 2011 at 09:36 AM