By the time you read this, President Obama will be on his way to Cannon Falls, Minn., the first stop of his three-day economic bus tour.
Obama will hold town hall meetings in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois to “discuss ways to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class and accelerate hiring in communities and towns across the nation and hear directly from Americans, including small business owners, local families, private sector leaders, rural organizations, and government officials.”
As Obama travels the back roads, he should take inspiration from Thomas Hart Benton, a painter who created murals from sketches he drew while traveling through America’s small towns during the 1920s. His murals include “America Today,” which is on display in the atrium of the AXA Equitable Building in the Big Apple.
Benton’s murals helped spark creation of the Public Works of Art Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration. The WPA put millions of Americans back to work during the Great Depression.
Four generations later, Americans are still reaping a return on the investment of taxpayers’ money.
After his road trip, Obama is expected to go to Martha’s Vineyard, where Benton summered for most of his life. His “People of Chilmark” is on view at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC.
With Obama’s approval rating sinking to the 30s for the first time in the Gallup daily presidential poll, he will have to do more than talk about jobs or create a “Department of Jobs.” Millions of Americans in rural and urban communities need a job today.
