This is an excellent question, one that has been given approximately zero attention amid all of the election talk. It is an important one, heavily impacted by the current economic crisis and one that comes on the tails of one of the least arts-centric presidents in United States history. Obviously there are more pressing issues at stake for the next President, but as the music industry continues to crumble and arts markets are in shambles it's creative peoples--musicians, visual artists, singers--and their practices that dissolve. Though neither candidate is likely to foreground the arts should they be elected, Barack Obama has the most extensive plan to encourage artistic re-stabilization. (He's also inspired the most music and visual art of any candidate this election, and probably ever.) Whatever the outcome, it's safe to say that the change will inspire, either negatively or positively, a certain outpouring of artistic expression. Perhaps this may happen in the way Spike Lee prognosticated. As lovers of music we should all keep this question in the fore of our minds and hold our next President to a standard much higher than our last. [TO]
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