The Politics Of Fear Analysis

A drawing can say a lot about the nation it was created in, and the people that live in it. The cover drawing in The New Yorker issue of July 21, 2008 dubbed The Politics of Fear is one such example. The cover of the issue portrays then President Candidate Barack Obama as an Islamic holy man, an imam, and his wife, Michelle Obama, as a militant black panther. The background has them in the oval office standing on top of the official seal of the President of the United States. The room in it has a portrait of Osama bin Laden and an American flag burning in the stove. The couple in the image is bumping each other’s fist and show a look of content in their faces. The message the artist of Politics of Fear is trying to convey is blunt, that in …show more content…
During the 2008 campaign, the University of Georgia noted in article called, "Study explores belief in rumor that Obama is Muslim", that about 20 percent people believe that Obama is a Muslim despite the fact he is not (Fahm). However, a mainstream religion should play no part in whether Obama would serve as a good leader, but to some people that is not the case. To many of these people, the election of non-Christian leader is a sign that America is headed to a path of sin and degeneracy. The Politics of Fear, illustrates very clear with the portrait of a terrorist in the Oval Office and the American flag being destroyed, and according to these radicals, the fall of America is the end goal of “Imam” Obama. Michelle Obama is known for her outreach to minorities in her support of African-American groups, the LGBT community, and her being a feminist role model. To some on the far right this proves that Michelle Obama is a degenerate Marxist, and so in The Politics of Fear, she is dressed as a militant Black Panther member and she is in the center of the image with her husband. The fact she is in the center demonstrates that she is equal partners with her husband in wanting to see the systematic destruction of America. In spite of the fact that Michelle came from a typical American background and has never expressed any radical leftist …show more content…
Instead of agreeing or disagreeing with Obama and his policies as most ordinary Americans do, some people have an irrational hatred of the man based solely on his appearance and his background. These people have created another Obama, one that is an Islamic terrorist that is married to a radical Marxist Black Panther, whose ultimate goal is to undermine and terminate the United States of America. The reality is that Obama and his wife and the people who support him are not any of these caricatures that they view them as. This distorted view