Material Mistake?

A quick note:
Having recently channeled the Material Girl (see photo session below) I feel I must comment Madonna’s slight misstep with the whole comparing McCain to Hitler on her tour bru-haha. I appreciate what Madonna is doing; trying to incorporate politics into performance (is there a distinction, really?) and wield the influence that comes part and parcel with her star power. Art is the best vehicle for social change, is it not? But perhaps she didn’t think this one all the way through. While I’m no McCain fan, I do believe that creating a photo montage that aligns present day politicians with prominent historical figures who have come to epitomize peace and love (Gandhi) and destruction and evil (Hitler) mirrors the “you’re either with us or against us” thinking that makes most remarks by my current president universally cringe worthy. I see where she was going with it, and I’d like to think her intentions were pure. Perhaps spectators were meant to take it has hyperbole; a worst-case-scenario (former POW turned dictator) that was to shock us out of complacency. But whether its Bush’s axis of evil or Madonna’s champions of change, to reduce nations, political parties, or individuals to opposite ends of the moral spectrum is ignore the shades of gray between. A nation divided by blunt superficiality that lacks the nuances of complexities and critical opinions looks like, well, the one my current administration has created. The one Madonna, myself, and many others are so adamantly opposed to and so desperately trying to change. So Madge, its only because I love you that I tell you the truth. Tough love, after all. But who knows? Maybe you just wanted to get us talking. Maybe you just wanted to get a point across. Maybe if I had the money, power, and attitude to do something so controversial and ballsy, I would do it to.

*See postings for “The Slut Vote” in feministing for more info.
**Ariana Huffington or someone else I’d like to be has probably already said the same thing, only better.