The Obama Aesthetic

American Thinker.com ^ | April 18, 2008 | Thomas Lifson

[neverdem]

Barack Obama's campaign has been all about image. The well-dressed, impeccably groomed, and elegantly articulate speaker was able to speak of hope, change, and unity, and for awhile the public bought it. Capitalizing on the huge store of guilt, compassion, and hope for better racial relations among the vast majority of Americans of all races, Obama posed as the man who might heal the wounds of the past.

The bonhomie lasted for months, as the press corps, no strangers to their own guilt and hope and leftist inclinations, averted its eyes from those elements of his politics and life story that were discordant with a unifier's mission, and portayed him as almost supernaturally virtuous. Obama long ago learned how to disarm strangers who might find him an unusual or perhaps threatening figure, and as long as the scrutiny didn't get too detailed, the game worked splendidly.

But that was before Hillary Clinton's campaign took him seriously. Before the Clinton war room wizards, past masters of planting stories and themes in friendly media hands, got to work on him. American Thinker and other conservative websites long have been pointing to his Alinskyite past, noting his Senate voting record and his propensity to associate with left wing extremists like Bill Ayers. But until very recently, the major media were content to allow his chosen narrative of centrism and unity to prevail. No messy qualms about actual policies disturbed the aesthetic of hope and optimism and unity.

The press collaboration with Obama's PR became so sickeningly obvious that Saturday Night Live was able to mock it savagely, and receive kudos for puncturing the bubble.  With the impetus of scornful laughter haunting them, mainstream journalists began to pay more attention to Obama's dubious associations. Video of Pastor Wright hit ABC, and from there the rest of the mainstream media began to pay attention to discordant notes in his rhetoric of reassurance to middle Amercia.

The ABC News-sponsored debate Wednesday night featured unprecedentedly tough questioning (at least for a liberal) by George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson. Obama stumbled in his responses, comparing admitted terror bomber Bill Ayers to United States Senator Tom Coburn, a physician who has delivered thousands of babies. Even more astonishingly, when reminded that capital gains tax increases actually decrease tax revenue while cap gains tax cuts increase them, he actually retreated to the realm of class warfare, insisting that regardless of the consequences, he wants to punish the owners of capital in the name of "fairness."

Welcome the new aesthetic of Barack Obama, the left wing ideologue. The signs have long been there, for those with the eyes to see them.

It is no accident that Obama has become the candidate of the Democrats' left wing fringe, typified by the Daily Kos crowd, despite his continuing efforts to sound a centrist note. The kind of people who are comfortable working with a poster of Che Guevara 

looking over their shoulders have been attracted to Obama because they read the little signals belying his centrist pose.

Of course, it may be unfair to hold a candidate responsible for all the actions of any of his supporters, but when a campaign itself indulges in the aesthetic of leftism, it may actually mean something. Take the striking posters of the candidate created by left wing artist Shepard Fairey and sold by the online Obama store run by his campaign. The entire run of the Fairey posters has sold out, so popular are they among the leftist cognoscenti whose aesthetic tastes run to nostalgic socialist realism.

Of the Fairey posters, the "Progress" poster is the most interesting. "Progressive" is, of course, the favorite euphemism for the hard left today.

Take a close look at the Obama campaign emblem placed on the "progress" poster. It is placed almost as if it were a medal worn on his lapel. And in place of the ordinary Obama campaign "O" seen on the "Change" poster, the "Progress" poster features a five pointed star in the middle. Look at it close up:

The symbol is almost reminiscent of the Soviet medal the Order of the Red Star [hat tip to reader Mark Roth]:

This is not to suggest that Obama is some Manchurian Candidate controlled by a conspiracy from the vanished USSR, but rather that his campaign is choosing to cultivate a hard left constituency via semiotic means. There is in America a substantial faction of the hard left which waxes nostalgic for the good old days of Soviet art and culture, and members of this group have been cultivated by the Obama campaign.


(source: Jay Nordlinger, National Review Online)

Of course, the smug in-group nostalgia for an evil and murderous ideology is not only repellant to most Americans, it is easily mocked.


Image by Daniel Montrose

Barack Obama has been able to preach racial harmony while attending and donating to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church for two decades. He has been able to masquerade as a centrist while hobnobbing with the radical chic activists and unrepentant terrorists of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.  He has been able to pose as a centrist while believing in the necessity of punishing owners of capital. But with Hillary Clinton and her minions aggressively pursuing him, and an awakened press chagrinned at giving him a pass for so long, those days may be numbered.

Thomas Lifson is editor and publisher of American Thinker.

[weegee]

The star logo on some version of the poster was put there by the artist. He uses Marxist/Communist/Socialist/Revolutionary iconography in his street warfare posters.

And Obama knows who he is. His campaign contracted some posters and Barack Obama sent a personal letter to the artist (who hosted the letter on his website):

What's with That Obama Poster?(NPR April 7, 2008)

Los Angeles.-based street artist Shepard Fairey is the man behind the design. Fairey first made a name for himself in the late 80's with black and white stickers featuring wrestling legend, Andre the Giant. He's known for putting his stickers and posters in unlikely and often illegal places.

"That's always been my style," Fairey says. "I don't get permission, I just do it."

He has the arrest record to prove it. And that's why, at first, he wasn't sure how the Obama campaign would feel about an artistic endorsement from him. But just before Super Tuesday, Fairey says, he got a call from the campaign telling him to go ahead and make a poster and distribute it in his typical guerrilla fashion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_Fairey

Fairey created the "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign in 1989, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).[3] This later evolved into the "Obey Giant" campaign, which has grown via an international network of collaborators replicating Fairey's original designs.[4] In a manifesto he wrote in 1990, and since posted on his website, he links his work with Heidegger's concept of phenomenology.[5] His "Obey" Campaign draws from the John Carpenter movie "They Live" which starred pro wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper, taking a number of its slogans, including the "Obey" slogan, as well as the "This is Your God" slogan.

[AndrewB]

Nah...it's just Andre.

[neverdem]

BTTT!

[weegee]

He uses pinko imagery often.

[jpl]

That is pretty creepy there, how he substituted his own Marxist type symbology on that one poster in place of the official Obama logo, while making it look superficially similar to the logo.

I don't think I would have ever noticed that if it hadn't been pointed out to me. Great article.

[LucyJo]

This is another one of those articles that needs to be emailed to everyone in our address books.

Excellent info about the artist.

[weegee]

It is the artist’s own variation on his own original poster. Both posters are by the same guy, it was not done as a parody. Barack knew quite well who he was dealing with.

[neverdem]

I forgot you, but better late than never, just in case you missed the socialist realism.

[ballpark franks]

the andre the giant face inside the star is an image distributed by shepard fairey for quite a while... it’s pretty much become a sort of signature (or signifier if we’re gonna stick to Heidegger terms) for Shepard and finds it’s way onto many of his designs.

i think Fairey had well enough sense to know that the Obama campaign would itself be a cultural signifier unlike any we’ve seen in recent political history and he made himself a part of it and contributed to an aesthetic that would interest the growingly detached urban sub-culture of artistic/alternative folk.

smart move if you ask me. and i find the aesthetic to be far more kitsch than a political statement in and of itself.

[oh-bummer]

The artist work leans toward a big brother thing and he uses some concept to push his ideology read some of his profile but need to check again for more insight to his work. The originals sold out but then design appears to have been modified to suit the campaign.

I also noticed a link on the artist site for another site subliminal prints or something.

You were able to download the B&W version for free Hi Res and please post it everywhere as per his request...Barry needs your help. Using his type of graphics it is easy to layer latent messages within his art.

If you rotate the design counter clockwise you could also
claim it is a crescent and star such like nation of islam uses or like on the “malcom x on steel” a work also done by the same artist.
Ever notice the likeness of barry, barack whoever he might be to Malcom-X...try taking two random photos of each that are similar...put side by side then if you know photoshop even better, layer them one over the other and slowly reduce the opacity of the top layer...gives me the chills...Still that question of a birth certificate...What was the guy's name who paid for his education? Khalid al-Mansour? Friend of some lawyer Percy Sutton who was one of lawyer for Macolm X or Nation of Islam...Okay i know what your thinking, enough already.. BTW does anyone have an idea what is with the 3 stars on some of his posters or desktop background or obamanation seal on background of website? have to copy the background to see it otherwise hidden by everything else that pops up.

[oh-bummer]

One more thing...The (hidden/blocked) obamantion seal background on the site is not modified to read “yes we can” in Latin.
It still reads “E pluribus unum”, Latin for “Out of Many, One...which I think refer to the original 13 colonies as one nation...Underneath are those three stars they are not solid as are the other stars...I am not sure of the symbolism...It can be open to many interpretations. I'm sure the Artist would know...The three stars can also be found on the top of the “yes we can” background download from his sight...Both also have a rising sun effect...Any ideas?