The Coming Debate

 

-- For four years, we have been witnessing, and some of us have been trying in our various ways to bear witness, to a sordid, incompetent, and malicious presidential administration. Now that a new administration is about to be installed, perhaps our daily experience of living in America will change, and I hope our own habits of attention will change, too. Instead of bearing witness to crime and incompetence, we will witness an emerging debate in the majority party about the extent and nature of reform. No doubt the debate in the Democratic party that is going to be newly central to our political drama will in some places be referred to as a battle, or as disunity. But the coming debate is normal, natural, and the special gift of self-government. I look forward to it, though I know that there are bound to be decisions made that seem to me insufficiently progressive, or misdirected. Even so, we're all in this together. Now, let's get on with the common deliberation.

The Pardoner

 

". . . none were more crass than the sellers of pardons.

"Supposed to be commissioned by the Church, the pardoners would sell absolution for any sin from gluttony to homicide, cancel any vow of chastity or fasting, remit any penance for money, most of which they pocketed. . . . What they were peddling was salvation, taking advantage of the people's need and credulity to sell its counterfeit. The only really detestable character in Chaucer's company of Canterbury pilgrims is the Pardoner with his stringy locks, his eunuch's hairless skin, his glaring eyes like a hare's, and his brazen acknowledgment of the tricks and deceits of his trade."

Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (New York: Random House, 1978), 32.

Invoking the 25th Amendment

 In my view, Vice President Pence should immediately convene the cabinet, which should invoke the 25th Amendment and remove the president. Here is a suggested draft of the speech he might then make to the American people.

Draft of a hypothetical VP Pence speech/declaration:

My fellow Citizens,

The past several days have witnessed events unprecedented in American history. It is my duty to announce on behalf of the cabinet that as of this hour, the vice president and the cabinet have agreed that it is necessary to invoke the 25^th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Donald Trump from the Office of President, with immediate effect.

President Trump has been under enormous strain, dealing with a world-wide pandemic, which affected him personally and with unknown long-term effects; a faltering economy; a divided country; and a wearying political campaign. For his enormous service to the country, he takes with him the thanks of a grateful nation.

In the days ahead, I will, as the Constitution provides, assume the duties of President. I ask that the cabinet and senior staff remain in place. Our primary task, as always, is to provide for the security and well being of the American people. We shall be preparing for an orderly transfer of this office with the inauguration in a few days of President Elect Joe Biden. In the meantime we will hold steady to the course of this democratic republic. We call on our friends to be patient, and we caution our adversaries, foreign and domestic, not to suppose that this is an opportunity for mischief.

I ask the American people for their patience and prayers.

God Bless the United States of America.

Let There Be Peace

I hoped when Posters for Peace was published in 2015 by the Penn State University Press some of the anonymous artists of the posters would come forward. One artist, Jay Belloli, was known to me at the time of publication. Then another of the artists, Phil Allen, identified himself. Now another of the artists, Robin Repp has come forward.

With her permission I enclose Ms. Repp's letter to me about the creation of the posters. The plate numbers to which Ms. Repp refers are from Thomas W. Benson, Posters for Peace: Visual Rhetoric and Civic Action (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015).

Here are the posters to which Ms. Repp refers, with plate numbers from the published book.

Robin Repp. Let There Be Peace and Let It Begin With Me. Plate 28.

Robin Repp. Did We Really Come in Peace for All Mankind? Plate 47.

Robin Repp and Michael [?]. It's Only the Beginning. Plate 27.

December 19, 2019

Hello Mr. Benson,

Thank you for your recent letter.  Yes, it was me who wrote the review on Amazon of your book, Posters for Peace. l really enjoyed reading your book.

Plate 28 and 47 are two of mine. Also, plate 27 I collaborated with a friend, Michael whose last name, I don't remember. It was May 1970, when I made my posters at home with photo silk screen techniques, printing on large paper, 26x40 and 17x22 that I purchased at a local store(Ponderosa?) on Page Street. I bought my screens at California Process Supply in Berkeley.  All of my posters were not part of the workshop that printed on that smaller, old computer paper. I made another poster that is not in the book, "The Cruel War is Raging", included in the Guardian article listed below.

I did bring my screens into the classroom when everyone started printing posters in large quantities. Lincoln Cushing, who lives in Berkeley has researched political posters extensively. You may know him? (http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/Bancroft/1970folio/1970folio.html and http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/Bancroft/1970workshop.html)

The Guardian, London, interviewed me a couple of years ago when there were 2 shows in London, one at the Stapero Modern and another exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum which included several of my posters.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/jan/30/after-kent-state-1970s-anti-war-student-art-in-pictures

and

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/30/poster-power-anti-vietnam-war-art-berkeley-california-students-exhibition-shapero-modern

That would be great if you can make the proper attributions. If I can connect with the other artists, that would be wonderful.  The 50 anniversary exhibition idea would definitely be of interest. Since the original show was in the Berkeley Art Museum, organized by Hershel Chipp, seems like that would be the perfect place, or Worth Ryder Gallery.

Thank you for reaching out to me. I look forward to hearing more in the future.

Best regards,
Robin Repp

 Artist 

OCCCA

http://www.occca.org

https://www.saatchiart.com/robinrepp

Labor Day

Jack Delano. Spectators at labor day parade in Du Bois, Pennsylvania. September 1940. FSA-OWI Collection, Library of Congress.

Posters from Women's March

http://www.chronicle.com/article/In-Discarded-Women-s-March/238987

Republic or Democracy?

Is the United States a Republic or a Democracy?

This non-issue is sometimes raised by those on the right--it was a favorite claim of the John Birch Society that America is "a republic, not a democracy," meaning the people should not rule. The same dichotomy is sometimes claimed on the Left, but as a complaint that the United States is not actually a direct democracy, or that at its founding the franchise was not universal. You will be hearing the claim coming from the Right in the days ahead -- be ready for it. Democracy and Republicanism are not contraries or mutually exclusive -- the United States is a republic (there is no monarch) and a representative democracy (despite the worries of the founders about the hazards of Democracy). Yes, the democracy is imperfect--how could it not be?--and it could be improved. But it's not one or the other, it's both.

see also https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/13/is-the-united-states-of-america-a-republic-or-a-democracy/?

 See also Abraham Lincoln, The Lyceum Address (1838)

Tocqueville, Democracy in America. 

Thank You, Secretary Clinton

It's hard to sort out Hillary Clinton the person, Hillary Clinton the evolving political actor (Senate, Secretary of State, presidential nominee) from the lies and smears, mostly baseless, directed against her for decades now. As a politician she has--perhaps often rightly, sometimes mistakenly--taken positions on issues, and sometimes changed positions. When looked at with any degree of seriousness, the scandals seem to evaporate into smears and lies and distortions--hypocrisies flung by other politicians. I'll admit that as the presidential election began to come into focus a couple of years ago, I hoped that someone other than Hillary Clinton might step forward, but not because I had any real belief in the smears against her--to which I have paid close attention since about 1990. But my hope for "someone else" was not really about doubts I had towards her so much as a sense of all that ugly bad memory. If nothing else, what other people believed about her would be a millstone--and it was. But when she emerged as a candidate, and then as the nominee, I found her direct, smart, profoundly serious and well informed. I supported her with confidence and hope--even recognizing what seemed to me some limits. She wasn't FDR, but she wasn't George W. Bush, either. I'm sorry she lost and I don't blame her for it.

It is hard for me not to think that we are seeing a resurgence here, and a victory, at least for the time being, of an old fashioned American brutalism, nativism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia, along with 20th-21st century authoritarianism. Those elements of our national experience have always been present and now they are taking new forms and new strength with this election. We have sometimes, in our history, managed to overcome -- but never to eliminate -- these parts of our history and character. It is easy for us at colleges and universities, perhaps, or in our comfortable cities and suburbs, to imagine that those forces were gone or shrinking to a manageable level. We were wrong. The work is not finished. We can only make a difference together.

Okay, mourn. Then what? Most of my friends are teachers and parents, and we all have elderly relatives and children who are relatives. They need your wisdom, your patience, and your love now. And then, organize. And teach. 

Progressives will have differences as we pick up the pieces, but though we do now need tough self appraisal we do not need factional infighting -- a historically likely development at a moment like this.

STOP. TRUMP. NO OUTLET.

STOP. TRUMP. NO OUTLET.

Get in the Scrap

Salvage. School children get in the scrap. The school children of America were officially organized for a nationwide salvage program starting on Monday, October 5, 1942. The children are going into the field as a junior army engaged in a major campaign for victory. Plans included the laying out of definite areas in each community to be assigned to specific groups of children. Plans were also made for holding meetings, collecting scrap, storing it and getting it to central points for shipment. Roanoke, Virginia has already gotten its program underway. This picture shows scrap being dug out of an attic by the "junior commandos." Photo by Howard Liberman. October 1942. Office of War Information. FSA-OWI Collection, Library of Congress.  http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/oem2002004863/PP/

Why Debate Preparation Matters

Who cares about debate prep? The press, sadly, seems to depict debate prep as about pretty much nothing but preparing one-liners, put-downs, and elegant evasions. And yet debate preparation for a president or a presidential candidate has an important substantive and systemic function, as it requires the principal to listen to and to read briefings on a range of important and difficult policy matters, to try formulating sensible and persuasive responses, and to hear those responses criticized by smart aides -- forcing the candidate or president to try again--and to think again. In a fine book called the Fourth Branch of Government, Douglass Cater wrote, many years ago, that a presidential press conference has the beneficial effect not only of providing an occasion for presidential communication, but also as requiring the president and crucially the presidential staff to see to it that they had a grasp of everything that was happening in the administration, so as not to be surprised. Without such occasions, the temptation of subordinates to hide bad news from the principal is strong. Debate preparation matters -- as a function of self government.

If Donald Trump does not bother to prepare for the current round of presidential debates but instead treats them as an occasion for extemporaneous mud-slinging and lies, what does that predict about how a Trump presidency might unfold?

Mud Wrestling for the Oval Office

Headlines: the face-off, the battle . . . Granted these are not actually "debates" as we academics would describe them, and of course they are dramatic mysteries as well as a rehearsal of presidential speech, but Donald Trump is already programmed to win the sort of encounter that our press describes in its metaphors of conflict. If we sell ourselves on the idea of the debates as mud wrestling, we have decided it before it has begun.

Women of America!

Women of America! If you want to put a vote in in 1920 put a (.10, 1.00, 10.00) in now. National Ballot Box for 1920. Photograph by Harris & Ewing. 1920. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Collection.  http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/hec2013000235/

Posters for Peace wins Everett Lee Hunt Award

Posters for Peace: Visual Rhetoric and Civic Action (Penn State University Press, 2015) is the 2016 recipient of the Everett Lee Hunt Award of the Eastern Communication Association.

ECA describes the Hunt Award:

The Everett Lee Hunt Award is presented annually at the discretion of the ECA Committee of Scholars. The Hunt Award reflects the philosophic commitment and scholarly contributions of Everett Lee Hunt, one of the founders of the discipline of communication and the eighth president of ECA (1927-1929).

The nominee should have provided a major contribution to the understanding of rhetoric and communication as a human function in the contemporary world; a means of explaining and realizing public responsibilities beyond the discipline of communication; and/or an intellectual and humane instrument for merging diverse fields of knowledge in a way that infuses them with moral purpose and public significance.

I'm With Them

I'm With Them. 2016 Primary Election Poster

DONTRUMP

New York Public Library Poster Collection

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Art & Architecture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Harper's July" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed February 24, 2016. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-487d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

From the free, downloadable collection of turn of the century art posters at the New York Public Library. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/turn-of-the-century-posters?format=html&id=turn-of-the-century-posters&per_page=250&page=2#/?tab=navigation

The Canary in the Mine

Some friends have disliked Hillary Clinton's yellow coat at the debate with Bernie Sanders last night. I did not much like that coat either, but with all due respect I think this line of criticism wanders into and reveals the anti-feminist double bind. This is a middle aged woman. The rules of dress for senior politicians are based on the standard followed by men -- dark suit, white shirt, dark or red tie. Women's clothing either imitates men (reminding us that she's not a man, implicitly qualified on those grounds for senior office), or it doesn't (ditto). That's the double bind, and none of us is immune to it. I don't remember much mockery of the clothing choices of the men in the race -- suit for the debate, jeans for the farmyard, casual for the diner, or whatever. Or implicit mockery of them for their figures. It is fashionable to suppose that the society has moved past sexism (or racism), but we haven't. I'm not accusing any of my friends here of this -- it's all of us.

 http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/politics/democratic-debate-highlights/

Burning the Autumn Leaves, 1940.

Jack Delano. Burning the Autumn Leaves on Broadway in Norwich, Connecticut. October 1940. FSA-OWI Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000023717/PP/

Football Season, 1937.

John Vachon. Spectators at football game, Annapolis, Maryland. November 1937.  FSA-OWI Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997002916/PP/ 

John Vachon. Watching Columbia-Navy football game, Annapolis, Maryland. November 1937. FSA-OWI Collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997002915/PP/