A 16-foot ‘Statue of Liberty,’ with the face of Vice President Kamala Harris, is the key element of the Halloween display that West Hartford resident Matt Warshauer has created in front of his North Main Street home.

By Ronni Newton

When he constructed the “Untied States Funhouse” in front of his North Main Street home last year, West Hartford resident Matt Warshauer, a professor and political historian at Central Connecticut State University, said it would be his last large political Halloween display.

But on Friday, a 16-foot-tall replica of the Statue of Liberty, with a face bearing a remarkable likeness to VP Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, rose along the edge of his front yard, accompanied by the requisite skeletons and ghouls – and what Warshauer considers to be critical messages and commentary amid an election year that he believes is pivotal.

“I have to admit that statement may have been more for my wife than me,” Warshauer told We-Ha.com regarding his pledge to have the 2023 be his last political display after a 20-year run. “I can’t not do something in a political election year – arguably the most important American history.”

Warshauer, who has spent his career studying and teaching about the constitution and the Civil War, believes that Abraham Lincoln was the country’s best president ever, but he believes this year’s election is even more critical to the nation. “In the 1850s, those issues had been coming for a long time,” he said. The South was already going to secede. “Lincoln’s election was incredibly important, because he turned out to be the best leader for the moment,” Warshauer said.

Some of Warshauer’s past displays have been subtle – and one even required Latin translation to get the full message – and while this year’s is equally thought-provoking and conversation-inspiring, nothing is veiled regarding his opinion of former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

“Trump represents such a fundamental, existential threat to democracy, self government, and our system. He’s a disaster,” Warshauer said.

The right (north) side of the 2024 display has four key panels, one of which is blank for passersby to add their thoughts. One includes an excerpt from George Washington’s farewell address in 1796, portending what the country’s first president thought could permanently fracture and destroy the nation. Warshauer said in the extensive reading that he has done, the founders of the United States were consistent in their support of an educated citizenry, and the dangers of the rise of someone like Trump.

Another panel is addressed specifically to Trump supporters, and includes quotes – warnings and admonitions – from those who served in the Trump White House. More than half of his former cabinet doesn’t support his re-election, Warshauer said.

Trump, Warshauer said, is a sociopath, and dangerous. “It boggles my mind that so many Americans have signed on. … He tells unadulterated lies, and yet people still line up behind this guy.”

The rally on Jan. 6, 2021 was intended to be an attempt to stop the certification of the election, Warshauer said, an attempted coup, and he said the thought that those involved could be pardoned if Trump is elected is ridiculous. “I don’t understand how you can support a president that attempted to overthrow our government,” he said.

Warshauer added that for the last eight or 10 years, he has been arguing that the Republican Party is in a state of disintegration, and that’s a view espoused by former leaders in the party, like Liz Cheney, as well. No one is waiting in the wings to take over if Trump loses the election either, and the fallout will impact both of the country’s major parties, he believes. The Democratic Party has also been disjointed, but this year has come together in its support of Harris.

The importance of this election is the message of Warshauer’s middle panel – his vision for this year’s display. “2024 is a one issue election,” the panel states. “It is about safeguarding the American experiment in democracy from a man who knowingly and fraudulently abused his authority, refused the peaceful transition of power, and treasonably attacked the very halls of government.”

Harris is the Statue of Liberty in Warshauer’s display, but it’s not because he thinks she’s the best candidate that’s ever lived, or will be the best president in history, or has the best policy ideas, but because she is needed to maintain the future of democracy in the U.S.

“She’s not a sociopath. She has spent her entire life in government service and service to people,” Warshauer said. “She is not a fundamental threat to the system. … I see her as a stable force.”

And key to electing Harris, Warshauer believes, will be the vote of what he refers to as the “9/11 Generation,” the young people who were children and young teenagers on Sept. 11, 2001, and those who are the subject of his recently-published book, “Creating and Failing the 9/11 Generation. The Real Story of September 11.” Those at the tail end of that group have become activists in the wake of the Parkland shooting, the “Me Too” movement, Black Lives Matter rallies, and most recently in opposition to Israeli policy. And once President Joe Biden dropped out and Harris became the candidate, they became engaged in this election.

Harris becoming the 2024 Democratic candidate inspired what became Warshauer’s 2024 Halloween tableau, but he had already been far along in his plans for a politically-themed display before having to scrap those plans when Biden stepped down in July.

“I was going to go with complete and total absurdism,” Warshauer said, the absurdism of an election between two elderly men running for president. He said while he has utmost respect for Biden, he should not have been running for a second term.

The display would have been an outdoor dojo with a giant Chuck Norris – as the only one who could save America. Warshauer has hundreds of his own karate trophies that were going to be part of the display, and he was considering using a chest that has been part of previous displays as a spot where the community could toss in their “participation trophies.”

The need to change course didn’t set back the construction timeline for this year’s display, Warshauer said, and he said the Statue of Liberty, while appearing elaborate, was one of the easier builds he’s done and that element took only eight to 10 hours to construct.

The backbone of the statue is a long 4-by-6 post surrounded by two plywood ovals with added strips of wood to create what Warshauer likened to a dressmaker’s form. He covered them with black plastic for waterproofing, and then added turquoise sheets.

“They’re king-sized sheets from JCPenney, $23 per set,” Warshauer said. They’re not waterproof, but when they get wet, it just adds to the effect, he said. “The thing that took me longer than I thought was getting the sheets right,” he said, because at first they were draped too tightly to get the right kind of folds.

The torch arm is made of wood, and the torch itself is old wall sconce. Warshauer has a bin full of old light fixtures that he’s held onto in case they’re needed for something, and this one was perfect. He added a flickering bulb he bought online. The head is crafted from a large piece of styrofoam and one of his children, Sam, painted the face.

The base of the statue was sitting in his driveway for the past month and half, wrapped in a tarp. It’s been reproduced with about 85% accuracy, Warshauer said, and required lots of looking at photos of the actual statue on his phone as he created it.

The Statue of Liberty, which was a gift from France, was dedicated on Oct. 28, 1886, and is “recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy,” the National Park Service website states.

“I had forgotten that the book she was holding was the Declaration of Independence,” said Warshauer, who is actually working with Connecticut’s state commission in planning the country’s 250th anniversary. The tablet, in Roman numerals, reads “July IV MDCCLXXVI” on both the actual statue and his replica.

Warshauer knows there are people in the community who will not appreciate what he refers to as an “art installation” that’s created mostly from scrap materials. “I did get permission from my wife,” he said, before moving ahead with the display.

Next to the statue, on the southernmost panel, is Warshauer’s artist’s statement, and in writing this time he states that this “is the final year of Political Halloween.”

He said last year he would still decorate for Halloween, so we will have to wait and see.

Past years, and how to view the display

Warshauer’s first political Halloween display was in 2003, about the Iraqi War.

The 2023 display had multiple themes, and interactive games.

The 2022 display was the Ukraine War, and in 2021 Warshauer featured skeletons staging a simulation of the Capitol insurrection, which prompted quite a bit of commentary.

In 2020 Warshauer tackled two issues – which he said were both equally important and alarming – COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter. Four of his previous displays, he said, were actually a prologue to that one:

• The 2019 display that had a SCOTUS theme, with images of all nine skeleton-headed justices peering down from behind a wall, with panels describing seven Supreme Court decisions that Warshauer considered to have had the most profound influence on our lives and the democracy.
• In 2018, the theme was the “death of democracy,” and for the first time Warshauer gave passersby a chance to comment.
• In 2017 there was a sinking pirate ship of state – the threat of tyrants, Warshauer called it.
• The 2014 display was the fall of Rome, and  included a replica of the Roman Colosseum.

Of all his displays, Warshauer said the most complicated to construct was the pirate ship in 2017. The “Trump wall” in 2016 garnered national, and even international, attention.

Warshauer’s house is located at 115 North Main St. in West Hartford, just north of Fern Street. There is no parking on North Main Street, but parking is available on some other side streets, including Hilltop Drive.

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