An IMPORTANT [art-related] ISSUE to consider during Election '08

If you care about the arts and how it might survive in this dwindling economy, perhaps this article below will help you decide who to vote for...


Taken from: Shelley Esaak's blog on about.com/arthistory

Over the past week we've seen trading tickers and Presidential campaign tactics sink to new lows and, I have to be honest with you, both are very distracting. Sort of like a slow-motion train wreck playing in a seven-day loop--you (and here by "you" I totally mean "me") know it's bad to watch, and you know watching is not going to accomplish anything, yet it takes an almost superhuman effort to peel your eyes away. "He said," "She said," "They said," infinity, with ad nauseam commentary from talking heads, many of whom I don't believe capable of feeding my dog let alone telling me what to think. My brain feels like an overstimulated hamster running on its wheel, not knowing or caring why it's running in the first place.

As you yourself may have discovered, such 24/7 drama isn't conducive to writing or speaking English words and arranging them into coherent sentences. So it came as a relief to be jolted back to my senses by a post on MUSEUM-L, a listserv to which I subscribe and recommend to anyone in the museum community. The "$3 million (USD) overhead projector earmark" comment from the Tuesday, October 7, 2008 debate naturally came up on the list, which led to further discussion about the candidates' positions on arts funding in general. This in turn led to a lister posting the enormously helpful link to the Americans for the Arts Action Fund's page entitled ArtsVote2008. In alphabetical order and without further ado:

The Candidates' Positions on the Arts

Senator John McCain (Republican Party)
Senator Barack Obama (Democratic Party)

Yea! Political, but pertinent to this community. Before you say anything, I thought about including other political parties' positions on the arts, but didn't for two reasons. (1) I couldn't find them, though I *did* look, and (2) let's be realistic. One of the two Senators above will be the President-elect of the United States on November 5. All that's really up in the air is which of these two candidates best represents your interests.

Just some food for thought... in light of all the recent ugliness both campaigns are guilty of.