Tea Party Agitprop

Slate ^ | 24 Sep 2010 | Angela Tchou and David Weigel

[Palter]

Images of the anti-Obama T-shirts and posters from this month's Tea Party protest in Washington.

The painter John McNaughton makes his living mostly with Norman Rockwell-esque landscapes and religious scenes. But on Sept. 7, he released The Forgotten Man, which portrays President Obama looking smug and trampling the Constitution, and it was an instant sensation. Below Obama, dollar bills and ignored legislation flutter with the wind. Beside him, a forlorn and impoverished man sulks on a bench. And behind him, his 42 presidential predecessors react to the scene, with progressives like Teddy Roosevelt rejoicing and Tea Party favorites like Abraham Lincoln recoiling. McNaughton's political art—before The Forgotten Man, he painted One Nation Under God, which portrays Jesus showing the Constitution to a small boy—has a clear conservative view. He might even be considered the official artist of the Tea Party, even though he says he has never attended a Tea Party event. No matter: Tea Party activists are pretty good at making their own art. At the Tea Party's 9/12 rally on the National Mall a few weeks ago, there was anti-Obama propaganda on posters, T-shirts, and even a cell-phone case.

[Palter]

FYI, stuff to add to your collection, get new ideas, or maybe you are in the photos.

[sneakers]

I note, looking at the faces in the painting, that Clinton, Carter, FDR and Woodrow Wilson also look smug.

[CalvaryJohn]

Some great comments at the site- it’s worth giving them a hit.

[Zeppo]

Even though the authors likely thought of it as a clever ploy, for Slate to call this "agitprop" is an obscenity tantamount to describing Israeli Jews as Nazis or labeling rape victims as "sluts" and "whores".

The origin of agitprop was a ruthless, leftist totalitarian State that routinely used violence, coercion, and blackmail on a massive scale as tools of their trade.

The Tea Party movement is the opposite - it's freedom-loving individuals speaking out against a heavy-handed government that is crushing our future in an orgy of leftist-inspired, State-sanctioned looting and corruption.

There can be no possible equivalence.

[thecabal]

What else do you expect from outed faux-conservative Dave Weigel?

[Wilum]

One Nation Under God, for me, was very emotional, especially the image of the Civil War soldier.

Both really great.