The View from a Drawbridge

I love art. I love satire. I love Seattle. So when all these things come together, I’m particularly thrilled.

And oh, I was, when one of my faithful readers (waving at Linda!) pointed out to me an art installation that came to Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Cleveland. Called “The Emperor Has No Balls” and created by an activist group called INDECLINE (whose website, incidentally, is really fascinating), it is a statue of Donald Trump in all his… uh… glory?

Yup, he’s stark naked, and missing a certain part of the anatomy as suggested by the title. The statue looks pretty accurate to me. As a matter of fact, I’ll probably need therapy after this, even though I’ve only seen pictures of it.

Here in Seattle, the statue… uh… popped up… on the corner of Pike Street and 11^th Avenue, but it seems to have been taken down after only a day. One article I read said it was still available for public viewing, but didn’t say where or how. Just knowing it lurks somewhere within the city limits, like the love child of Godzilla and a banana slug, is kind of unsettling.

But good art ought to shake you up and make you think. Some people, of course, are saying it’s tasteless, and as a general rule I disapprove of body shaming. But in this case, nudity is a metaphor for exposure. Exposing the man for what he really is.

And really, folks, he kind of asks for it. This is a man who has discussed his penis size in a presidential debate. It’s not as though he’s an otherwise dignified human being who is being unfairly targeted. He lives for this stuff.

Putting a statue like this in the middle of downtown Seattle is kind of like preaching to the choir, though. I hope the media buzz will open up some eyes, at least. The whole point is that if you take away all of Donald Trump’s bluster and ignorance and racism and misogyny, what you get is a distasteful… thing… that would turn any reasonable person’s stomach.

As far as I can remember, no other presidential candidate in the history of the United States has been depicted in this fashion. There’s a reason for that. Trump stands alone as the most inappropriate candidate we’ve ever had, and the fact that he’s gotten so close to the presidency is rather terrifying. He has no platform at all, and the wildly unimplementable opinions he espouses would be a human rights nightmare. He wants a police state that benefits no one but himself.

This art installation is meant to turn you off. Exposing Donald Trump’s ugliness is the very least we can do. Please vote.