CSotD: What the other half hears
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When Michael Ramirez (Creators) begins quoting Michael Dukakis, you know the End Times are near.
Ramirez is hard to pin down; he appears strongly conservative but isn’t a consistent booster of the GOP, which wouldn’t have stood out once upon a time but it’s been awhile since we were less strongly divided than we are today.
The current civil war is difficult because we’re firmly separated politically and philosophically but not geographically and so we’re continuing the fiction of being one nation and, instead of putting on blue and gray and shooting at each other, we snipe behind the scenes, in mufti, and pretend it isn’t happening.
At the moment, I’m speaking metaphorically for the most part, but a few more Paul Pelosi attacks — in which deranged people act out what others only talk about, while one side gasps in horror and other other half denies or, worse, justifies it — and we won’t have to pretend anymore.
We’ve got a major candidate for the presidency who says that, if he were in the White House, he could assassinate his opponents and — assuming he controlled a majority in the Senate — be immune from prosecution for it, and 41% of Americans view him favorably.
Ann Telnaes can depict him as a despotic monarch trampling the Constitution, but she’s preaching to the choir. A frightening number are thinking, “Yes! That’s just what we need!”
Martyn Turner posted this in Ireland in the immediate wake of yesterday’s townhall in which Trump unrolled so many lies that the fact checkers could barely keep up.
The whole world is watching, but only Americans get to vote, and, thanks to Fox News, many of them will never know they’re being lied to. Trump lied for six years and he lied through an entire presidency and only now is he on the verge of being held responsible for his lies.
But only liberals like Pat Byrnes care. To the faithful, a conviction will be more evidence of a conspiracy.
And if he loses again in November, he’ll blow the final dog whistle and let loose the hounds of hell.
The latest chapter in this farce is the notion that we must put aside the Constitution in order to allow the voters to decide. I’m already on record as being sick of Mickey Mouse copyright gags, but I’m also on record as saying it has become hard to write satires that outdo reality. Well, Tom the Dancing Bug has managed to provide a double-exception.
And as noted before, the people bellowing “Let the voters decide!” are the same ones who declare the voters’ decision in 2020 to have been fraudulent. They don’t mean “Let the voters decide.” They mean “Let the voters confirm.” And there is only one truth to be confirmed: Theirs.
I’m also tired of Boeing door gags, but behold: Jimmy Margulies (KFS) provides an exception to that, as well.
His take is funnier than Telnaes’s, and quicker to absorb than Tom the Dancing Bug’s, but, again, it won’t reach the people who only get their information from Fox and suchlike, where blasphemous viewpoints are never reported.
They get a different diet of information, like this piece from Chip Bok (Creators) in which he depicts Biden as having dictated an illegal intervention, which is utter nonsense.
The fact is, Biden has danced around the issue, telling reporters “”You saw it all. Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection.”
But who cares about facts? The point is to persuade, not to inform.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Two takes on the latest Congressional puppet show.
Whamond simply records what happened. Biden showed up and offered, once again, to testify publicly but not behind closed doors, explaining that he feared selective leaks from the committee and wanted it all on the record. But James Comer wouldn’t even allow the committee to debate the offer, declaring it out of order.
Deering sums up what ensued, a freak show in which, among other things, Nancy Mace demanded that Hunter Biden be arrested on the spot. Not only was there no debate over his offer, but the meeting degenerated into a near lynch mob.
Bill Bramhall sums up the entire degrading spectacle, but again, most of the people who encounter his cartoon will be readers of the NY Daily News. Readers of Murdoch’s NY Post won’t see it.
There is this point, however: “Preaching to the choir” implies that there is nobody in the pews, and that’s not true. The phrase suggests that you will change few minds: That is true. But whipping up the faithful matters, particularly with an election at hand.
The Iowa Caucuses will be instructive, because the polls show Trump with an unassailable lead over Haley and DeSantis, while the weather forecast suggests a lousy night for heading down to the town hall to stand around and be counted.
If Trump supporters decide that he can’t lose, and decide not to brave subzero temperatures, it could be an interesting forecast for November. Maybe all the cartoonists doing “Biden’s too old” and “Biden can’t win” and “Look at the polls!” cartoons are doing America a favor.
But that knife cuts both ways. If progressives think it’s all over, they may not show up either.
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
Sheneman began the year noting how Republican governors are uniting behind a move to turn down funding for poor children when school is out of session, while Fell points out the elitist cruelty behind their attitude.
Sorensen bats clean-up in the debate, noting, as Dan Froomkin has written, that we know what we’re talking about but we’re too polite or cautious or cowardly to say it out loud.
Though, to be fair, several governors have said that they hate helping poor children, regardless of color.
We remember the solution. The main reason for buying the Panther Press from street vendors back in the day was to support their free breakfast programs.
I’d buy it again. I like kids. Even poor ones!
BCNU
Anyway, if you fear the end of fair elections, don’t listen for jackboots on the stairs. It will be a lot more genteel and polite than that.
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