All of these people are innocent until proven guilty.  Their clothes are another story.

DO

WHO:  Ryan Blackwell

WHAT:  Disorderly Conduct

Though I may disagree with Mr. Blackwell’s politics, I agree with his haircut.  Turning your head into a billboard is always a difficult task but this young democrat has managed to do it with aplomb, cunning and daring.

People usually have safer messages carved into their heads.  But Mr. Blackwell has shunned such clichés as the dollar sign or Nike swoosh and turned his head into a political battleground.  Although he could have gone a bit further, perhaps sporting a violently pro-abortion slogan or a threat against a congressman’s life, he still made a brave step in the right direction.

This haircut not only makes him appear innocent but also fun.  Looking at his cheerful expression and amusing “do”, one cannot help but feel his disorderly conduct charge was more a matter of high-spirits and overly-zealous policing than any threat to the public safety.

DON’T

WHO: Sherman Cleveland

WHAT: Soliciting a Prostitute

While carving a political slogan into your head takes some daring and fun, wearing a political t-shirt is the sure mark of the sanctimonious moron.  It takes a special sort of twit to wear a shirt with a slogan.  To wear one that preaches is ridiculous and to wear one that shows support of a leader verges on Nazism.  Why is it that, no matter their message, red armbands are frowned upon but a t-shirt needs a really awful message to be viewed with abhorrence?  That’s  style over substance.

I would love to know what one is thinking when they engage in this, the very laziest, form of activism.  Do they get most of their political information from shirts?  Is there actually a human less informed than the one who gets their politics from actors and musicians?  Or do they just want to show support, hoping that their clothes are so cool others will change their votes just so they can wear them?  If that’s the case, these Obama shirts need some work.

Typically sold in janky little shops in Chinatown, where you can also buy a Che Guevara or Chairman Mao shirt and, perhaps, a set of Hitler shot-glasses, they are ugly things.

The only interesting graphic design out of the Obama camp is the above Warhol ripoff.  But this is only because it is such effective propaganda.  Warhol used this style to create portraits of icons and was so successful that Obama could use this imagery to paint himself as an icon.  It was very clever.  And, amazingly enough, that sort of nonsense works.

Simply wearing a political shirt is sanctimonious but doing so while being arrested is moronic.  Especially if you’ve been arrested for trying to pay a crackhead to put your wee-wee in her mouth.   And super-especially if you have so utterly failed at even this simple task.  It doesn’t engender confidence in your chosen leader to solve geopolitical issues.

If you must wear political clothing, I suggest a pin, button or cufflink of some kind.  Or even the armband.  Those are long overdue for a return.   Try to avoid the ones with swastikas.