Right-wing blowhards, sensing impending defeat began to bang a drum of vilification against Barack Obama in 2008. Tossing around loaded terms like Marxist and Socialist, they tried to use vintage red-scare tactics to link the rapidly fading fear of communism with the Democratic presidential candidate. Much to their delight, amid a tepid campaign a portrait of Obama by artist Shepherd Fairey emblazoned with the word “Hope” found its way onto tee-shirts, stickers, posters and fliers, all embraced by a youthful movement of supporters. The image, which drew direct inspiration from soviet era propaganda posters, incensed the extremist right who marveled at the masses plastering the picture across the US while failing to intellectually connect the communist-inspired imagery with the communist-inspired fears they were attempting to sow.
The political rebuke of the aging republican party that followed in the presidential election of 2008 signaled a changing of the guard in the political landscape signified by the death knell of the red scare. Less about one political party over another, the future will likely show this to be a contest more based on generations then ideology, and for the observant student of copyfight culture, this moment also marked a growing change in the attitudes towards the very concept of an artistic or creative copyright.