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Title: An Artist Protests Obama’s Abuse of the Constitution (Video)
Source:
National Review
URL Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/artic ... -raises-his-brush-brian-bolduc
Published: Sep 19, 2010
Author: Brian Bolduc
Post Date: 2010-09-19 12:31:01 by Murron
Keywords: None
Views: 151155
Comments: 144
An Artist Protests Obama’s Abuse of the Constitution (Video) Author: Brian Bolduc Artist & Narrator: Jon McNaughton A man, crestfallen, is sitting on a bench in front of the White House, contemplating his country’s future. At his feet lie the causes of his distress: tattered dollars, representing a weak currency, and scraps of paper, symbolizing an abused Constitution. Behind and around him stand the 43 presidents of the United States, most of whom are outraged. One of them, James Madison, reaches pitifully for the ground, trying to collect the shards of American greatness. Unfortunately, he can’t retrieve our founding document from the dust, for it’s beneath the foot of Barack Obama. The title of this portrait is “The Forgotten Man,” and its creator is Jon McNaughton, a 42-year-old artist from Spanish Fork, Utah. McNaughton unveiled the piece last Tuesday with a video describing its origin and a website explaining its meaning. “For a long time, I didn’t know if I wanted to paint this picture, because I worried that it might be too controversial,” McNaughton intones in the video. Now, however, he’s courting controversy. The Forgotten Man A husband and father of six, McNaughton graduated in 1993 from Brigham Young University, where he studied art and design. Today, he runs the McNaughton Fine Art Company, which offers mostly landscapes and Biblical images for retail. McNaughton models his work after the French Barbizon Impressionists, artists in the mid–19th century who painted scenes from the countryside in subtle shades. That said, there’s nothing subtle about his latest creation. McNaughton first conceived of the portrait after Obamacare became law in March. “I was just frustrated with what was happening with Obama and the out-of-control spending,” he tells NRO. “As an artist, I thought this was a way to get my message out.” What is that message? “I wondered, ‘If the presidents of the past could speak to us today, what would they say to us?’” McNaughton explains. Clearly, they would oppose the unprecedented expansion of government. Yet the focus of the painting is the forgotten man — the ordinary American. “If that man doesn’t get off his bench and try to change what’s going on in our country . . . we’re on the verge of bankruptcy. That was the point I wanted to make,” he says. On McNaughton’s website, you can move your cursor over the faces in the painting and read an idiosyncratic summation of each president’s tenure. Yes, each of them. For instance, George Washington, who’s front and center, “instituted the First Bank of the United States in 1791.” But even Rutherford B. Hayes, who’s in the nosebleed section, gets a blurb for increasing “the government’s supply of gold.” Working twelve-hour days, McNaughton spent five months researching the portrait, reading everything from Wikipedia to history books. “I tried to focus on the fiscal spending of these different presidents and how it has to do with the devaluing of the dollar,” he notes. “I didn’t go into civil rights or war.” His educational forays led him to some unconventional conclusions. For example, McNaughton criticizes the Founders for their fiscal profligacy. “Our founding fathers weren’t adept at managing debt either,” he writes on the website. “In 1791, the national debt was a mere $75 million. But that is equivalent to $5.2 trillion in 2008 dollars.” To be fair to the Founders, though, a revolutionary war is kind of expensive. Despite McNaughton’s good faith, the Left will censure him, and he knows it. He did his first overtly political portrait last October. Entitled “One Nation under God,” it shows Jesus Christ holding the Constitution while surrounded by figures from American history. The painting drove liberals bonkers. Comedian Bill Maher dubbed it “‘Where’s Waldo’ for wing nuts.” “I did go to the Huffington Post to see what they said,” McNaughton reports. “They reminded me of a junior-high-school locker room. They all want to outdo each other with the grossest comment they can think of.” Still, McNaughton thinks the opposition to this painting will be different. Whereas for the previous portrait, a viewer can accept Christ’s authority only on faith, in this one, “the facts are the facts. The people who trash the painting say, ‘Oh, it’s just another right-wing Republican.’ But I don’t feel my position is very threatened. I feel that the truth is just behind me.” If people object to the portrayal of Obama stepping on the Constitution, McNaughton reasons, he’ll tell them everything Obama’s done to deserve being characterized that way. McNaughton knows his political background makes him a target. A former state delegate for the Utah Republican party, he now considers himself an independent. He left the GOP because of George W. Bush, who “ruined the Republican party.” Accordingly, in the portrait, Bush eyes the suffering man from afar — distant in location and in feeling. But McNaughton also knows he’s got a hit. He’s already sold several prints, and his video has racked up over 170,000 views on YouTube. His video for “One Nation under God” — after spending almost a year online — has garnered more than 3 million views. At the rate “The Forgotten Man” is going, he expects it to surpass its predecessor in popularity. “They’re quite the conversation pieces. People will have one hanging in their house and people will come in and there’s so much to talk about,” McNaughton says. In “The Forgotten Man,” McNaughton groups the presidents into two categories: those who oppose Obama’s actions, such as Washington and Madison, and those who support them, such as Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton. Viewers routinely object to the placement of their favorites in either category. “It’s fun to have people talk about it,” he says. He hopes to keep them talking. McNaughton just started a third portrait, which he plans to release by the end of the year. This one will be more religious in tone — at least, more religious than “The Forgotten Man” — though he hints that “I’ve got one painting [in mind] that might be affected depending on whether Obama runs for reelection.” Whether or not Obama runs, McNaughton’s art has ensured that his message won’t be ignored. ONE NATION UNDER GOD 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 80.
#64. To: All, mininggold, Ferret Mike, war, Brian S, Skip Inrto, Suzanne, Abu el Banat (#0)
Nice post...And the bonus is that it'll make the above pingees - ALL OF THEM - cringe, hurl, or melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
Good! Then I did what I set out to do....
I'm on the verge of being banned (yeah, I'm a real danger to this site), but I will say, this: I'm NOT crigning at the verses. Instead, I'm righteous angry at insurance companies who only want to insure healthy people and the hell with anyone else--and to the politicians who support this unsustainable system. I am righteous angry at companies (like Massey and BP) who cut corners on safety and cost people's lives, but who donate heavily to candidates who want regulations lowered or eliminated. I'm righteous angry at my country being controlled by corporate interests that still think "greed is good."
Instead, I'm righteous angry at insurance companies who only want to insure healthy people and the hell with anyone else--and to the politicians who support this unsustainable system. I am righteous angry at companies (like Massey and BP) who cut corners on safety and cost people's lives, but who donate heavily to candidates who want regulations lowered or eliminated. I'm righteous angry at my country being controlled by corporate interests that still think "greed is good." Well, good for you, we do have quite a bit in common, just not how we should go about getting it. I just hope you understand someday Suzanne, that anything of yourself you give to the feds to control, you'll never get it back, you may not suffer, but your future generations will, and I'll just bet they'll not thank you for the chains they'll be wearin... My ancestors didn't have gubmint handouts, free housing, special interest groups, food stamps...ect, they were dirt poor, and they survived without the feds messin in every aspect of their lives, from cradle to grave....and so can I, and I am possitive I am not alone.
My ancestors didn't have gubmint handouts, free housing, special interest groups, food stamps...ect, they were dirt poor, and they survived without the feds messin in every aspect of their lives, from cradle to grave....and so can I, and I am possitive I am not alone. As I said, at any moment I will be banned; I have been told. If that happens, best wishes. So, with my departure imminent, here goes: I went to college because of the GI Bill; that was a deal I struck with the feds and they didn't take it back and, goodness knows, they don't control my thoughts. Instead, it was a win-win. I now earn more money and pay more taxes than I would of if stuck in pink-collar hell. Oh, and, yeah, two years I even qualified for a Pell Grant (another government program; and I have repaid the amount of the Pell Grant over and over through taxes, and to this day, I remain grateful to that program—and I like the changes that Obama has brought to that program [cutting out the middle man who simply tacked on fees]). As for debt, generally I'm opposed to it. I want young people--starting from elementary school--to be taught how to make good choices with money and the evils of credit cards. (I want Ben Stein to teach this kind of class.) That being said, there are times when people have to go into debt. If the only thing standing between you and a job interview is an interview outfit, then I'd say "buy the damn suit" preferably from a consignment store (and, just in case Stone is monitoring, that's one of the very few times [if any] that I've used profanity on his site). I don't like government debt much, either. I didn't like it that GWB waged two unfunded wars (debt to be repaid in the future). Combine that with simultaneous tax cuts and it's like an individual running up a huge credit card tab while donating lots to charity--or to a mistress. It doesn't add up. I didn't like it when the financial industry was deregulated (and both Democrats and Republicans are on the hook for that one--although the Republicans were really pushing it along). We were already in trouble and the housing bubble put us at the very brink. I still don't see Republicans and even Tea Partiers talking about how deregulation catapulted us toward disaster. Even Ben Stein has said that for decades now, Wall Street investors have behaved like wild, out of control fraternity boys drunk on money and power. Yet, I see many Tea Party candidates saying that we should end Social Security--just so we can trust those Wall Street frat boys with our precious retirement dollars. The fact that we haven't fallen into a full-blown depression amazes me (although we're still fragile). And, if the Tea Party is so upset about fiscal irresponsibility, where was it when George W. went on a drunken sailor's spending spree? Where? Am I content with everything that Obama has done? Certainly not, but I will say I think he's trying to keep us out of a depression. Are we going to be in debt a long time, YES. George W. started us on that path and we are going to be on it for a while, just like a person who has run up a credit card bill to insane amounts is going to face a long repayment period. Has Obama made it all better? Certainly not, but it's been such a short time. I am more than willing to consider other options if I heard actual IDEAS--not platitudes like "Do You Love Your Freedom." I want ideas...boring, dull, but meticulously thought-out ideas on these major issues. What is the Republican plan to bring back jobs, deal with what had been an unsustainable health care system, and end the war in Afghanistan? What is the Tea Party approach to these same topics? I want specifics! Oh, and since I'm on the verge of banning, let me just say (because I know it will really make some people angry), my father belonged to a union. Because he belonged to a union, we got to live a few blocks away from a ghetto. I got a decent public school education and the ghetto kids got crap. And, for a final nail in my coffin, I never had an abortion because I got information and actual birth control (the pill) from PLANNED PARENTHOOD.
My dad did too.
So did my dad, and my grandfather hired his employees from the union hall.
There are no replies to Comment # 80. End Trace Mode for Comment # 80.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest"One of them, James Madison, reaches pitifully for the ground, trying to collect the shards of American greatness. Unfortunately, he can’t retrieve our founding document from the dust, for it’s beneath the foot of Barack Obama".
#65. To: Murron (#64)
#66. To: Liberator (#65)
ALL OF THEM - cringe, hurl, or melt like the Wicked Witch of the West.
#68. To: Murron (#66)
ALL OF THEM - cringe, hurl, or melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. Good! Then I did what I set out to do....
#69. To: Suzanne (#68)
I'm on the verge of being banned (yeah, I'm a real danger to this site), but I will say, this: I'm NOT crigning at the verses.
#74. To: Murron, war, Fred Mertz, liberator, Skip Intro, Ferret Mike, lucysmom, Abu el Banat, A K A Stone (#69)
I just hope you understand someday Suzanne, that anything of yourself you give to the feds to control, you'll never get it back, you may not suffer, but your future generations will, and I'll just bet they'll not thank you for the chains they'll be wearin...
#79. To: Suzanne (#74)
Oh, and since I'm on the verge of banning, let me just say (because I know it will really make some people angry), my father belonged to a union.
#80. To: Fred Mertz, Suzanne (#79)
Replies to Comment # 80.
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