Socialism!

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"Socialism!"

First of all, let me say that I'm a fan of Barry. His job is one that I would not want under any circumstance, because of the inhuman problems & schedules involved. I've said that I haven't been a supporter of all his policies, but I believe he's doing what he thinks he can to steadily improve things from the nearly decade-long disaster of Bush's regressive, plutocratic rule.

The worst part of the deal is the fact that it is physically impossible to please every group & faction in the country, no less every individual. Obama is getting called a Socialist, Facist, Nazi, communist, Muslim, Islamo-fascist, & whatever label sounds sufficiently anti-"American".

Like any public official, Obama's philosophies & policies can be categorized with any disparaging label, as long as a rationale can be given. It doesn't even need to be a logical or justifiable rationale as long as other people buy into it.

This whole thought process led me to wonder if Obama, the Master of Propaganda himself, could be so persuasive that he actually smoothed-talked "Socialism" into seeming like a patriotic American value!?!

I've been wanting to make a crazy sort of Bizarro anti-propaganda poster that combines iconography of Soviet communism with the red, white, & blue of the good ol' USA.

The inspirational, yet appropriate, slogan "We are All in This Together" came to me as a way to offset the negative connotation of "Socialism." Then, I heard Obama use that exact phrase in his TV health care speech! At that moment I thought, "Ok, well that settles it. I gotta make this stupid thing..." So, I sat down recently & put this poster together one night last week.

I tried to make it as visually 'American' as possible- with flag colors, stripes, stars, a font similar to our currency's. The pose & spikes of the star crown resemble the illuminating Statue of Liberty. Beams of compassion for his people stream out from the heart area while he holds the O Sun logo at his stomach, pregnant with possibilities for the Republic. (or maybe he's just playing ball in front of a crowd?...)

The patriotic & positive tone of the poster twists the perception of Socialism as a negative force against American society into a proud American virtue.

On the other hand, the stars and strong red color could also give the sneaking suspicion of Communist activity lurking just below the surface. (I might as well point this out, since Glenn Beck would probably figure it out anyway.)

The stars also form a subtly menacing barbed wire-like border, while the big star behind Obama's head make devil horns that can only be explained by the fact that Obama is The Anti-Christ. Of course, the focus of the image is our deceptively friendly El Presidenté, surrounded by the adoring Liberal mobs that blindly follow our Dear Leader. He's an evil trickster, that Obama!

Anyway, this was just an absurd, fun idea to get off my mind & into the Internets.

The link at the top of this post takes you to the product page on my Cafepress site: The Monkey Buddha Bazaar