The health care reform advocacy group Public Option Please sponsored a pro-public option art contest. Here is the winning entry.
I suspect many health care reform supporters find this poster inspiring for the same reasons many health care reform opponents find it disconcerting.
UPDATE: It appears the quote on the poster is actually the work of Henry St. John Bolingbroke, Viscount. Here is the quote in Bolingbroke’s essay “The Idea of a Patriot King,” which was written in 1738.
The good of the people is the ultimate and true end of government. Governors are, therefore, appointed for this end, and the civil constitution which appoints them, and invests them with their power, is determined to do so by that law of nature and reason, which has determined the end of government, and which admits this form of government as the proper means of arriving at it. Now, the greatest good of a people is their liberty.. and, in the case here referred to, the people has judged it so, and provided for it accordingly. Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man: without liberty no happiness can be enjoyed by society. The obligation, therefore, to defend and maintain the freedom of such constitutions will appear most sacred to a Patriot King.
Kenneth Anderson says:
I think maybe I prefer … Russell Roberts, The Invisible Heart!
December 16, 2009, 9:17 pmSimon Jester says:
According to that poster, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico will be the only remaining bastions of free-market medicine!
Flee the lower 48!
;->
December 16, 2009, 9:20 pmSkyler says:
It’s unbelievable that any American could think this would be a positive image to portray.
December 16, 2009, 9:35 pmFat Man says:
It is a picture of a concept that I believe is antithetical to everything that America stands for. Although Kim Jong Il would like it for his dominion.
December 16, 2009, 9:35 pmBerkeleyBeetle says:
What an odd quote to use, though perhaps it indicates how empty popular conceptions of ‘liberty’ are, as the idea is turned on its head (i.e. instead of the invoking the obviousness of the value of health to promote liberty, these folks are trying to invoke the obviousness of “liberty is good” to promote individual health, with the idea that it requires a collective health care system to do so… I think. It’s like the location of the words “collective” and “individual” didn’t even compute)
December 16, 2009, 9:38 pmRegolith says:
…so, Washington, D.C. is some kind of tentacle heart monster? Where’s a wooden stake when you need one?
December 16, 2009, 9:39 pmAlex says:
As a supporter of single-payer health care, I am horrified by the poster. What are they thinking? Why are we liberals so bad at messaging- is it really that hard to sell the idea that you won’t have to lose your health care when you lose your job? Arrrrgggghhh.
December 16, 2009, 9:47 pm24AheadDotCom says:
The first thing I said when I saw that was, “is that a graphic from Twitter”?
The second thing I said was, “I wonder: does volokh.com have an actual step-by-step plan to block the legislation they complain about?” Considering the brainpower at this site you’d think they could come up with a plan that considered all the angles. I’ve been promoting a plan for almost three years that could have had an impact, but I don’t get anywhere near the traffic of this or similar sites.
December 16, 2009, 9:50 pmAJK says:
Perhaps the most amusing thing about this poster is that the quote isn’t even from Thomas Jefferson.
December 16, 2009, 10:03 pmSteve says:
If you ignore the word “option” it’s really really really scary!
December 16, 2009, 10:10 pmConstantin says:
Creepy and a little revolting.
And yeah, Steve, I’m sure this artist, and those who find his image so inspiring, are in favor of the whole litany of “options,” as far as the eye can see. Just like Barack and Bernie and Barney.
December 16, 2009, 10:19 pmtheobromophile says:
It seems to have deoxygenated blood going into both the right and left ventricles.
December 16, 2009, 10:20 pmType 1 Commenter says:
If it’s not from Jefferson, who is it from?
December 16, 2009, 10:25 pmkrs says:
The Washington-based tentacled heart monster triumphed over these two:
Second place: the protestor who wants to remind you of an uncontroversial generality
Third place: what they’ll print on paper money once Obama declares himself emperor
Nothing like a good art contest to bring out where people’s heads are on this. Or to be more charitable, it reinforces Alex’s point: whatever the best arguments are behind the “public option,” a lot of people doing the talking don’t seem to be aware of them.
December 16, 2009, 10:26 pmrpt says:
The Coburn option is much simpler…….”die quickly”.
December 16, 2009, 10:27 pmkrs says:
bromophile, you mean atria, no?
December 16, 2009, 10:28 pmAJK says:
Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke.
December 16, 2009, 10:42 pmMalvolio says:
I do. What we need is for everyone whose Congresscritter is basically pro-abortion to call that critter’s office and say, “I swear, if you vote for a health-care bill that doesn’t cover abortion, you hate women and I will never vote for you again, ever.”
Meanwhile, everyone whose Congresscritter is basically anti-abortion calls and says, “I swear, if you vote for a health-care bill that does cover abortion, you’re a baby-killer and I will never vote for you again, ever.”
A few hundred thousand calls like that, pushing these weasels in the direction they want to go and they’ll still be arguing when Barack Obama is on Medicare himself…
December 16, 2009, 10:56 pmDave N. says:
My thought reminded me somehow of Star Trek:
“We are the Borg. You will be assimilated into our consciousness. Resistance is futile.”
December 16, 2009, 11:04 pmBruce Hayden says:
Run the heck out of the poster, and see which way the polling moves. My guess is that this is good for a couple of percent – against passage. It reinforces the idea that everything is run from Wash., D.C., which here is portrayed as the heart of the country. That is unlikely to go over very well outside the bi-coastal elites. If they had put the heart in what is more typically considered the heartland of America, maybe the mid-west, it might have worked. I am thinking maybe Ohio. Ill. would have worked – except for who is in the White House right now. But D.C.? NFW.
December 16, 2009, 11:15 pmSuperSkeptic says:
Well, Washington certainly isn’t the brain…
December 16, 2009, 11:19 pmMike Keenan says:
Creepy. Third place creepy as well. Second place is not so bad.
December 16, 2009, 11:42 pmSo Say I says:
Subtle. Almost as subtle as Hobbes.
December 17, 2009, 12:56 amJonathan Gardner says:
So, did these guys miss the entire point of the American Revolution or what?
Those of you who like this idea of the state controlling everything, there are places all over the world where that message is not only acceptable, but encouraged by the state.
Please, leave us in peace.
December 17, 2009, 1:52 amtheobromophile says:
krs: from the picture, it appears is if deoxygenated blood goes into both ventricles and oxygenated blood goes out through the (single) atrium, which is located just around the back. :)
Second place winner is just trite. Third place is the door prize at next month’s bulimia convention.
December 17, 2009, 1:55 amTweets that mention The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » The Heart of America -- Topsy.com says:
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Eugene Volokh and tonya bell, Eugene Volokh. Eugene Volokh said: The Heart of America: The health care reform advocacy group Public Option Please sponsored a pro-public option .. http://bit.ly/5jacqk [...]
December 17, 2009, 5:02 amPersonFromPorlock says:
Neat-o. I await the version with a brain in Washington and neurons throughout the country.
December 17, 2009, 5:52 amChris Chilson says:
Are those arteries feeding from DC or tentacles radiating from the centralized government? The image of the poster conveys one of two things. One is that without Washington DC, the rest of the country will be denied the life-giving blood it needs and only a central gov’t can provide.
The other is that the central gov’t needs a system to fund it’s social programs. That system is siphoning wealth from the country and redistributing it as they see fit.
December 17, 2009, 7:54 amDYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » The Heart of America says:
[...] Read it. [...]
December 17, 2009, 8:21 amPubliusFL says:
They must have meant the other Thomas Jefferson, the left-wing bumper sticker writer. You know, the guy who wrote “dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
December 17, 2009, 9:11 amkrs says:
The poster didn’t immediately creep me out, but the longer I stare at it, the creepier it seems.
Seeing a network of bloody tentacles emanating from Washington and covering most of the country doesn’t really match up with the “liberty” of the “collective body” in the slogan. If I didn’t recognize Philadelphia (I think) in the second place poster, I’d feel the need to ask whether there were any entries from outside the beltway.
December 17, 2009, 10:37 amJared Rhoads says:
So the message is, “Liberty is good, therefore support a public option.” (???)
If the point of the contest was for artists to portray the most egregious contradiction, then this one is a deserving winner. It is just a rehash of “a hungry man is not free.”
December 17, 2009, 11:15 amkiwi dave says:
Agree, first and third are deeply creepy.
Second is actually quite good, a bit of pathos and a plea for dignity.
First, in addition to being a misquote, turns the quote’s meaning on its head and is terrifying.
December 17, 2009, 12:36 pmThird belongs to the school that will likely end up being referred to as “Obamist Realism”.
Dotar Sojat says:
Could easily be redrawn as an octopus.
December 17, 2009, 12:40 pmBill says:
It already looks like a Portuguese man-o-war…
So many misfired messages in one single poster.
December 17, 2009, 12:43 pmuberVU - social comments says:
Social comments and analytics for this post…
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December 17, 2009, 4:05 pmMark T says:
Back in the early 70′s, there was some college – I think Antioch – that made a similar recruiting poster, except the continental 48 was stylized as a crouching lion, with Maine as its “mane” and the heart was in wherever Antioch was, and the title of the ad was “Study in the Heart of the Beast” or something like that. I remember at the time how weird that seemed to induce people to go there.
Anyway it is amazing how no one associated with producing that saw the complete contradiction between their collectivist message and the individualism of the quoted work. Are they aware yet condescending toward readers’ intelligence or simply not clear thinkers themselves?
December 17, 2009, 4:33 pmjaed says:
Are we absolutely certain that the artist is not some underground genius opposed to government medical care takeovers? Some subtle saboteur in the heart of the single-payer movement, who has used this opportunity to encapsulate in one image everything that’s wrong with the concept?
(I wonder this in particular because this image places the beating heart of America smack in Washington DC. Surely a pro-single-payer artist would have put it in the middle of the country, thus making geographic as well as rhetorical sense, and appealing to parts of the country where the idea is not popular.)
December 17, 2009, 5:17 pmKirk Parker says:
Malvolio,
24A.D.C is a troll that infests a number of places (e.g. Althouse, where s/h/it posts under another name), and it’s always the same boring schtick: “I’ve got the perfect method to drive the left from power, but nobody pays attention to it.”
Better to ignore than to engage…
December 17, 2009, 10:03 pmRequired says:
I don’t see what people are complaining about, maybe a little subtle but it is pretty clear and a good graphic argument about the healthcare issue with some nice rhetoric which reinforces but is unnecessary to make the point. I especially like the way the circulatory system is drawn in way reminiscent of tentacles infesting the nation from the monster of DC. It does a good job and no doubt will be very successful as a piece fo propaganda, the creepiness is a feature not a bug. If the people who are in favor of the public option could come up with something as good at this as showing how good the public option would be, perhaps with an inspiring quote about liberty being meaningless if you are dead then there would probably be less opposition to to it. I agree with Alex that liberals have a harder time than conservatives with imagery, I expect (based upon the ‘mainstream’ liberals I know) that it is because they are too full of themselves and instead of trying to understand those who disagree with them liberals sneer and consider them ignorant yobbos.
Wait, this is pro-public option piece? Yikes, if this is the best they could come up and they had to torture a quote to find one then the left is no only out of touch with conservatives, they are out of touch with most of humanity.
December 17, 2009, 10:24 pmRandy says:
And it’s missing bones and muscles.
December 18, 2009, 10:34 amThe Heart of America | Liberal Whoppers says:
[...] the original post: The Heart of America Share this [...]
December 19, 2009, 12:52 amTGGP says:
Let’s hope Daniel Larison never sees that citation of Bolingbroke, he’d probably have an aneurysm.
December 19, 2009, 3:20 amLaura(southernxyl) says:
Re: The third piece. Isn’t “public option for all” just a bit self-contradicting? I guess it isn’t if we read it as “everybody has the option of public” but then it’s worded backwards.
The second piece is the kind that bothers me. Yes, the pictured person is human. Yes, absolutely there are those cold-hearted people who don’t care about what happens to people like that; and there are those shallow people who don’t think about them. But to say that those of us who do care automatically support the public option as being the best thing for them is to say that there are no caring people who have thought through the issue and arrived at a different conclusion. I try to reserve accusations of not caring for people who have pretty much told me they don’t.
December 19, 2009, 12:00 pm