Svante Myrick discusses the importance of art and resilience in the upcoming election.
Because while art does give joy, it also gives strength. It has always been a tool to challenge injustice and enforced conformity, to resist oppression and authoritarianism. That’s why dictators down through history have suppressed and banned art and even murdered artists.
It’s why artists and creators face an enormous threat today, not just from vandals roaming the streets of Chicago but from the deadly serious, powerful operatives behind Project 2025, who are intent on stigmatizing and suppressing vast numbers of artworks by calling them “pornography.”
It’s why far-right groups like Moms for Liberty have it in for writers from Toni Morrison to Judy Blume. It’s why the far right wants to ban minors from drag shows, which represent a cheerfully subversive form of entertainment.
To paraphrase a piece of conventional wisdom: For the censors, it’s not about taste, it’s about power.
