Expressionism And The Modern Conservative Movement

When art doesn't imitate life, you end up with something like this.



All the basic elements are there: scary music, a modern conservative pretending to know what former presidents and Founding Fathers would have to say to Obama, the Constitution, and narration that completely ignores the reality of the previous administration. But just for effect, let's frame this as an artist struggling with the grand desire to speak out against government with his craft but is hesitant for fear of retribution from those he disagrees with. Yeah, the melodrama is about as thick as county fair blackberry preserves.

But this part troubles me somewhat - the flag at half-staff on the White House. Doesn't that contradict the entire premise of this clip? After all, the symbolic nature of flying the flag at half staff is to show that this day marks a time of struggle and sorrow for the country. So, if the artist is saying that government - Barack Obama in particular - doesn't see their administration as being unconstitutional, tyrannical, or having taken away the liberties, rights, and freedoms from people, why would the flag on the White House be at half-staff?

You would think that with all this talk about knowing what is and what isn't Constitutional, what is equivalent to tyranny, and what is anti-American, that this painter would get even the tiniest detail like that right.

The reality of this painting is that it represents a lack of knowledge of things like The Constitution, the history of American Presidents, and how we got into this situation. I'm not even going to go into the fact that there would certainly be a few of the men in the painting wondering why Obama wasn't out harvesting their crops and pretending to be the President, but you know that Tea Baggers will never admit that some of the Founders owned slaves - you know, that whole "history" thing can be a pain sometimes.

I'm reminded of a similar video that Bob Cesca commented on yesterday.

First, there's no chance in hell the people who made this video actually voted for the "Democrat" president and the "Democrat" Congress.

Plus, TARP was passed by the previous administration.

The stimulus, which was actually $787 billion and not $1.2 trillion, created 3.3 million new jobs and averted a deeper recession.

That bar graph at 2:14 showing the year-by-year deficits ending with the large deficit of 2009? George W. Bush signed the 2009 budget, not President Obama.

And are the Republicans suggesting here that they're not going to negotiate deals with senators in exchange for votes -- a common practice in Congress since the day it first convened? That's rich.

It's the collective ignorance dressed up like intelligence and historical accuracy ( even recent history mind you ) that is the hallmark of the Tea Bagger collective. Then again, these are the same people that want to do away with the Dept. Of Education, defund educational programs across America, and all too often favor education from a religious perspective.

Conservatives Don't Understand Expressionism

Just about all Americans have appreciation for the flag that represents us. It's hung on homes, on polls in city parks, and in town squares. But conservatives seem to love the flag so long as they can use it to push their own ideology, their own agenda.

So when a graf artist takes the mentality of the modern conservative movement, how they have consistantly obstructed healthcare reform at every literal turn, and created a visual expression of what exactly these people are doing - well, let's just say that they aren't too pleased.



Personally, I think that this is one of the greatest examples of how the modern conservative movement, in their behaviors in every facet of society, have attempted to destroyed what America was intended to be and what it should be.

And just so you know, conservatives are more than willing to alter the appearance of the flag and violate US Flag Code, so long as their message is presented to the mouth-agape masses.

The Cool School -- A Story About The Ferus Gallery

Last night on PBS ( KET2 for viewers in Kentucky ), they aired the documentary The Cool School. The film depicts the rise of the monderist movement in art in America.



The rise of L.A.'s Ferus Gallery, one of the key catalysts of the modern art scene, was the place where Ed Kienholz, Alan Light, Billy Al Bengston, Ed Moses, Robert Irwin, John Altoon and Craig Kauffman changed the face of art in America.

More info at the LA Times