Shepard Fairey is the artist who shot to fame in 2008 with his 4 color poster of Obama. Now he is fully behind the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, citing Bernie’s strong position on campaign finance reform.
Fairey, 45, who officially endorsed Sanders last month, said in an email interview this week. “Sanders will be different because he is already different. He’s not accepting corporate donations or allowing the creation of super PACs.”
Fairey expressed his concerns with the limitations of pragmatism and compromise in today’s political climate.
“In my opinion, the United States has moved further to the right because Democrats have chosen to be pragmatic and compromise for the sake of finding common ground. Unfortunately, the Republicans do not compromise even when it stalls needed government functions,” Fairey said. “Diplomacy is not working for progressives. Obama’s attempts to work in the middle were met by disdain from the right and frustration from the left.”
Shepard sounds like a lot of us who have grown weary of Democrats conceding before even fighting. Bernie leaves no doubt that he will forcefully use the bully pulpit to grow a movement to counter the corruption inherent in a system that currently feeds inequality and injustice.
“This might be over simplifying it but I think the chief difference is that with Obama there was the thought that his concepts of unification and diplomacy might improve the country by appealing to people’s loftier aspirations while the Sanders supporters seem to recognize the absolute necessity of protecting the country from further income inequality and corporate tyranny.”
I hope Mr. Fairey has some more political poster magic brewing for Bernie.