Obama’s impending Occupy nightmare

Published November 21, 2011 5:00am ET



Shepard Fairey, the Los Angeles based artist responsible for the famous 2008 President Obama Hope poster, has released an updated version of the original design, marrying the original Obama image with the “V for Vendetta” Guy Fawkes mask that has been used by the Occupy movement. The poster reads: “Mr. President, we HOPE you are on our side.” At his personal site, Fairey adds:

This image represents my support for the Occupy movement, a grassroots movement spawned to stand up against corruption, imbalance of power, and failure of our democracy to represent and help average Americans. On the other hand, as flawed as the system is, I see Obama as a potential ally of the Occupy movement if the energy of the movement is perceived as constructive, not destructive. I still see Obama as the closest thing to “a man on the inside” that we have presently. Obviously, just voting is not enough. We need to use all of our tools to help us achieve our goals and ideals. However, I think idealism and realism need to exist hand in hand. Change is not about one election, one rally, one leader, it is about a constant dedication to progress and a constant push in the right direction. Let’s be the people doing the right thing as outsiders and simultaneously push the insiders to do the right thing for the people. I’m still trying to work out copyright issues I may face with this image, but feel free to share it and stay tuned…

Fairey’s “if the energy of the movement is perceived as constructive, not destructive” line is telling. While early polling of the Occupy movement showed that Americans were initially supportive to parts of the movement’s message, the latest surveys have shown that the inherent lawlessness of the group’s tactics have turned off most Americans. According to PPP, a liberal pollster, where the American people initially only narrowly rejected Occupy Wall Street by 35%-36% margin, in just one month, Occupy lost 11 points of support and is now firmly opposed 33%-45%. Independents swung the most dramatically from 39%-34% support, to 34%-42% oppose. 

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