Art and politics: From campaign fanfare to dirty tricks

Campaigning for President: New York and the American Election

Museum of the City of New York

Through Nov. 4

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The presidential election is bound to disappoint nearly half the population, said Richard Pyle in the Associated Press. But people of every political persuasion will enjoy this exhibition that “dramatically traces the 200-year history of this uniquely American ritual, from George Washington to George W.” The Museum of the City of New York has assembled a fascinating array of posters and propaganda items, many of which were originally created for campaigns of the six New Yorkers who went on to hold the highest office in the land. Others were created by partisan operatives and advertising agencies based in New York. “Along with dolls, fans, jugs, bumper stickers, and paper dresses for campaign workers, there are top hats, canes with carved heads of candidates,” and buttons galore. Some may seem like artifacts of ancient history, but many struck chords that remain relevant today. Campaigning for President “explores the very nature of democracy” and proves that in some ways politics hasn’t really changed that much over 200 years.

In other words, it has always been pretty vicious, said Mark Lasswell in The Wall Street Journal. “Some of the most fascinating materials” here are those that make overt attacks on political opponents. Offended at criticisms of John McCain’s speaking style? Get a load of the gewgaws produced by Republicans in 1896 to poke fun at the loquacious Democratic candidate, William Jennings Bryan: Tiny coffins labeled “This Man Was Talked to Death.” Affronted by a seemingly racist remark about Barack Obama? See if you can stomach “the doll depicting Bryan’s rival, William McKinley.” Flip it over, and you’ll see a dark-skinned baby—a reference to the rumor that Bryan had a child with an African-American woman. Keep this offensive image in mind “the next time you hear someone decry ‘partisanship’ and ‘the politics of personal destruction’ as some sort of modern political malady.”

Negative ads and slanderous dolls seek to make political opponents seem small and petty, said Edward Rothstein in The New York Times. But the objects worn by a candidate’s supporters also, in their own way, serve to bring larger-than-life political figures down to human scale. Putting someone’s face on everyday objects such as dishes or dresses helps to humanize them: Voters who sported Andrew Jackson hairpins or “I Like Ike” socks helped to comfortably domesticate these wartime heroes. The point of this exhibit “isn’t that issues don’t matter; it is that issues are not the only things that matter.” In the end, we probably get not only the candidates but also the campaigns that we deserve.