As the election looms, the standard left-wing slant of the New York Times arts and social pages becomes ever more blatant. Style writer Sridhar Pappu penned “These Guys Are With Her” for the paper’s fashion (?) section. The online headline was provocative: “Hillary Clinton’s Lonesome White Male Supporters.” Another piece celebrated an artist who holds up "late-capitalist demons...to ridicule."
Brian Methe, an artist who lives in Cincinnati, had a thought. Wouldn’t it help the chances of his preferred presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, if he were to design a simple, powerful image that could have the same effect as the “Hope” poster made by Shepard Fairey for Barack Obama’s 2008 run?
So Mr. Methe, 41, who has done graphic design work for the bands Wilco and the Avett Brothers, among others, created a rendering of Hillary Clinton that shows her in profile, with the slogan “I’m With Her” in the upper right corner. The color scheme is red, white and blue.
He was proud of what he had made, but when the image hit social media, the reactions from fellow adult males on Facebook were often angry:
“Does it come with darts?”
“I want the orange jumpsuit version.”
“I’ll use it as toilet paper.”
He should not have been surprised. As Mr. Methe said, being a white male Clinton supporter is “not a popular position,” something many polls have found as well. A New York Times/CBS News poll released on Sept. 15 showed that Donald J. Trump had the support of 57 percent of white males, while 33 percent supported Mrs. Clinton.
Pappu played the sexism card early and often.
“But why do people feel the need to do this hyper-vetting of Hillary Clinton?” said Mr. Methe, who has offered to volunteer for the Clinton campaign. “Is it because she is a Clinton, because she is attached to the Clinton dynasty, or is it simply because she is a woman?
....
The caustic, offensive comments made by Mr. Trump’s supporters at his often-rowdy rallies have done little to counter the notion that those who do not care for Mrs. Clinton are hung up on her gender.
The Times found a Mississippian who learned the error of his right-wing ways after broadening himself through travel.
In the 1990s, Wade Overstreet, 42, would have recoiled at the prospect of Mrs. Clinton taking the oath of office. He was raised Republican in Jackson, Miss. Two decades ago, he believed in the promise of the Newt Gingrich revolution. Later, he voted for George W. Bush. Twice.
But Mr. Overstreet, who raises money for the ALS Association Louisiana-Mississippi Chapter, has changed since then -- especially in regard to his views on women’s rights.
He traveled widely, and lived away from his home state for a number of years before moving back. In 2008 he voted Democratic for the first time in his life. Now, in one of the reddest states, he finds himself an outlier, part of one of the least likely demographics to support the Democratic nominee.
....
Faith plays a role in his view of Mrs. Clinton, he said. Having grown up Southern Baptist, Mr. Overstreet remains a regular churchgoer, and he is put off by what he sees as the embrace of Mr. Trump by the evangelical right.
“She identifies herself as a Methodist, and I think it’s admirable that she does not blow a trumpet about her Christianity,” Mr. Overstreet said. “I’ll say this: Jesus instructed in the Bible that we not bring attention to ourselves when we pray, but instead we actually feed the hungry and help the poor and medicate the sick, and so Hillary’s vision for America is much more in line with my faith.”
....
“I’ve caught flak for it, and I’ve been surprised by the vitriol,” Mr. Overstreet said. “When they try to make an argument, it’s enough for people to just say, ‘Benghazi,’ and that’s the end of it. It’s so visceral. It’s not based on fact.”
Pappu found another Hillary supporter who simply bullied people who disagreed with him into silence.
Many conversations he has had during the 2016 campaign have tested his patience.
“I end up getting really upset,” he said. “I say, ‘Well, you’re being sexist.’ People will say they aren’t, and I say, ‘Well, tell me why you’re not.’ But people don’t want to have that conversation. And because I get so wound up about it and can get pretty righteous, people just want the conversation to be over. I don’t think I change anybody’s mind. But I think I shut them up.”
Another Friday Arts story, “The Politics of Fear,” was on a left-wing themed haunted house piece in Brooklyn by artist and “biting social critic” Pedro Reyes. Randy Kennedy’s article made it clear that this a conversation exclusively among the left-wing NYC cultural elite:
But when [Reyes] and the New York public art organization Creative Time began discussing a piece to coincide with the homestretch of the American presidential campaign, Mr. Reyes settled on an idea that allowed little in the way of light: the professional haunted house, an essentially American creation (by way of Grand Guignol and Victorian ghostiana) for generating shock and fear.
“The haunted house has never really been considered an art form, but it’s a true folk art -- every town has one at Halloween,” said Mr. Reyes, whose own version, “Doomocracy,” opens Friday within the sprawling Brooklyn Army Terminal in the Sunset Park neighborhood. “Haunted houses don’t have a narrative or make sense. You’re there to be terrified, to be a masochist. So those are the limits I decided to work within for this.”
Kennedy signed on to Reyes’ anti-capitalist conspiracy.
But Mr. Reyes added that the house’s half-dozen fright scenarios are less about the failures of political leaders and more about systems at work in the world economy -- the military complex, the financial industry, the gun industry, the fast-food industry and Big Pharma, just to name some headliners -- that have become so vast they seem to govern themselves, rendering political control almost ineffectual. And making satire a tall order.
....
Mr. Reyes acknowledged that the piece would probably be received far differently were it presented in suburban Ohio or rural Tennessee; he knows he is preaching mostly to a choir of liberal art lovers who oppose many of the late-capitalist demons he holds up to ridicule...
Capitalism has been “late” for a long time without withering away, hasn’t it?
