Yes, We Know

posted at 12:44 pm on November 2, 2009 by CK MacLeod
[ Moonbats ]    printer-friendly

Apparently the Shepard Fairey creation below has been around for a while, but I saw it for the first time Sunday. It was mounted on the rear window of a lefty-mobile, amidst a collage of peace signs and sports team stickers:

The very old-fashioned-looking graphic decorations and lettering were no doubt meant to convey a sense of “entering into history” – but that notion can be taken two ways – “it’s historical!” – but also “he’s history – now what?”

Yes, Barack Obama (PBUH, etc.) has joined the 432 other men who’ve held our nation’s highest office. In irony-free zones to our left, that achievement stands unambiguously as a sign of victory. For some, like the members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, “hope” was apparently enough – with or without realization of whatever was or might be hoped for. Hope was, as now merely having hoped somehow remains, its own reward. After all, “they” were, as John Hinderaker helpfully recalls for the rest of us, the ones they were waiting for.

If, however, like Charles Krauthammer in his recent Spiegel interview, you wonder whether what the President will likely best be remembered for is simply having gotten elected; if like Michael Barone you’re asking where “all those Obamenthusiasts…[have] been hiding this year,” the imagery takes on a different set of connotations. The sticker/placard emphasizes the already-pastness of Obamamania in the moment of its ascendancy. The moment the triumph arrived, it was already receding from view – all its intrinsic purposes served.  It might as well have happened 100 years ago – except for that residue in the White House that might never have been elected, or even in contention, on its own merits.

cross-adapted from Zombie Contentions

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