Watch Out For the Scabs

It is no doubt easy to fault a place like Oakdale for it's well-intentioned but often off-the-mark political zeal, but every so often an event takes place that defies this slightly off-color character and intensifies and deforms the existing climate of debate. Even where there is the opportunity for intelligent and reasoned political conversation, cringe-inducing, grimace-producing statements often surface. These facts are noteworthy if for no other reason than because politics as a topic of conversation is otherwise avoided entirely, granted that this taboo is by no means unique to this place.

But the way in which it implies a consensus is expressed in the kinds of demonstrations that do arise, when they do. For when there is any kind of statement, it is something objectionable or galvanizing and rarely anywhere in between. But I do desire to defend Oakdale here, as the kind of activism this picture displays is not reflective of its character but is evidence of a more pressing need for political institutions to provide reasonable and healthy avenues for participation and expression, lest efforts like this capture and absorb any kind of extant displeasure with the 'status quo.'

What's additionally disconcerting about the picture included is not the predictably stomach-churning portrayal of Obama-as-ruthless-dictator (and the attendant sidelining of all legitimate and supportable criticisms we might make of him and the policy atmosphere that follows him) but the signature by which we might be able to identify the author of this attempt at two-people-chair-and-a-stand activist method: "LaRouche." His named is emblazoned on the bottom strip discretely but nevertheless undeniably as if this is his most famous painting. Interestingly, this image does have its own particular history: first authored in 2008 in the lead up to the election. it nevertheless remains an odd contribution to a checkered American popular political discourse, attracting criticism from the likes of both Limbaugh and Stewart.

But he also represents, in a very concrete way, the saturation of money in political affairs, and the penetration of these efforts into Oakdale. Meanwhile the presence of these 'activists' invites the image of being popularly-organized, reassuring and affirming us in our patriotic sentiments in a time of doubt about our ability to actually participate or to have the ability or care to. Unfortunately, these ostensible moments of popular expression and freedom-affirming instances of speech, sadly remain soaked in the ocean of money that has drowned popular participation and washed onto shore nothing but concern over the stability and justness of the institutions we defend.

Still, this single photo can only say so much, and while it is tempting to say that this tendency towards provocative and radicalized punditry that would make headlines as uttered by any politician is a mere byproduct of an underdeveloped political culture or 'backwards' opinions, I would instead volunteer the position that this kind of political action is little reflective of Oakdale and only preys on it, substituting conspiracy theory-like partially-formed (inchoate) opinions for opportunities for actual consciousness-raising learning opportunities that might spark serious political conversation or at least sustain what is already happening. Perhaps talking about these issues more might even illuminate how marginal LaRouch and company really are (while their solitary presence on the side of the road seems to imply a kind of ubiquity), or, in the process, we might all finally come to realize ourselves as basically being Political Animals.