Obamaganda
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
This is something I have been meaning to post for a while now but have been reluctant to do so given the ugliness that Election 2008 has brought out of the American people. At this point, I am sure that come November 4th, Senator Barack Obama will become President-elect Obama and while I am not really happy about this, I can honestly say that I hope his presidency does not live up to the pessimistic predictions I have for it in my head.
That said, I wanted to put up some side-by-side comparisons of Obama’s campaign artwork and some classic communist propaganda posters. Obama can laugh off the notion that his policies amount to socialism and I do not care to argue that here. I am posting this to critique something that I do know a little about which is art, style, and particularly design. In my mind, there is no question that Obama is using a style similar to the communists of yesteryear, a style I have dubbed “Obamaganda.” The real question that absolutely fascinates me is why Obama, being a left-of-center politician running for the highest political position in a nation that has had such a major anti-socialist/communist past would be comfortable using this Obamaganda style.