Progressive Buttons Blog

People often talk about the fabric of the American national identity without understanding the metaphor that they are using. A fabric isn’t one thing. It’s the union of separate things into something bigger. It’s the coordination of strings moving in opposite directions, accommodating each other, and growing closer through that accommodation.

Weavers are the practitioners of warp and woof. They start with spools of string and end up with art. They see both union and individuality.

That’s the metaphor people refer to when they talk about the fabric of the American nation. They’re talking about how we all manage to stand together even though we come from different places and are heading in different directions.

Barack Obama understands this vision. It’s a vision of e pluribus unum and a more perfect union. That’s why weavers support Barack Obama for President in 2008, and let this political pin pierce the fabric of their own clothing, to make a statement of a new vision with which to clothe the American dream.

This political button features Barack Obama standing in front of a backdrop of a beautiful rust-colored loose-weave fabric.