Art and the First Presidential Debate

Politics! 

How depressing can it become?

 Who can make art when a mean spirited old man with no capacity for empathy wants to get his itchy fingers on the red button? A man who is so contemptuous of the American people that he would risk having an incompetent, inexperienced, right wing extremist as a vice president, just because that person is a woman? It's almost too much to bear.

I rushed home from the opening of my friend Kathy Knaus' art show, to watch the first presidential debate, and John McCain, who brags of his ability to work with those with whom he disagrees, was so condescending to Barack Obama that he couldn't even look him in the eye as he distorted Obama's record and message. Doesn't this tell us a great deal about his respect for those with ideas at variance with his own?

As an artist, it's terrifying when his answer to the economic disaster we now face, after 8 years of Republican administration, is the threat of a near total federal spending freeze. Imagine, for example, what that would do to the NEA, and countless art organizations around the country. All of our cultural institutions would decline, if they were able to continue existence at all. What about the Smithsonian and its numerous museums? The list is very long. And this is only one very small corner of our society which would be affected by such a drastic decision.

While not discussing specifics, Obama's response was that McCain would use a hatchet when a scalpel was needed.

You can read Barack Obama's position paper on the arts by clicking here.

We have gotten used to having guns and butter. I realize that some sacrifices may be necessary to right this economy. And, of course, the debate wasn't about art policy. But for many of us, the arts are essential to our lives, and we know that the arts are often the first to go when others try to define frivolity.