The Forgotten Man

The Forgotten Man Raises His Brush
An artist protests Obama’s abuse of the Constitution.




A man, crestfallen, is sitting on a bench in front of the White House, contemplating his country’s future. At his feet lie the causes of his distress: tattered dollars, representing a weak currency, and scraps of paper, symbolizing an abused Constitution. Behind and around him stand the 43 presidents of the United States, most of whom are outraged. One of them, James Madison, reaches pitifully for the ground, trying to collect the shards of American greatness. Unfortunately, he can’t retrieve our founding document from the dust, for it’s beneath the foot of Barack Obama.

The title of this portrait is “The Forgotten Man,” and its creator is Jon McNaughton, a 42-year-old artist from Spanish Fork, Utah. McNaughton unveiled the piece last Tuesday with a video describing its origin and a website explaining its meaning. “For a long time, I didn’t know if I wanted to paint this picture, because I worried that it might be too controversial,” McNaughton intones in the video. Now, however, he’s courting controversy.