CSotD: Monday Miscellany
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This cartoon is both depressing and encouraging, being an external viewpoint from Denmark.
He’s right that we’ve fallen into the clutches of partisan lunatics, though perhaps you have to be old enough to remember the Cultural Revolution to comprehend the realities of an army of extremist disciples roaming the country looking for unfaithful citizens to identify and re-educate.
We aren’t there yet, though there have been many repostings of a woman in Idaho being dragged out of a town meeting by private security. Reports seem unclear on how disruptive she was, but the fact that private security was standing by with zip ties and pepper spray at least lets you know a fair amount about dialogue in Coeur d’Alene.
And while audiences — both left and right — can be disruptive, leadership matters. As the Greek saying goes, a fish stinks from the head, and when things break down, it’s the people in charge who bear the greatest guilt.
This cartoon from Private Eye demonstrates one way of preserving order, and between this and Otzen’s offering, we at least have the satisfaction of knowing that people from outside the US recognize a reasonable level of helplessness and chaos happening here.
The Cultural Revolution is long over in China and the little red book of Thoughts of Chairman Mao have disappeared, but so has the uprising in Tiananmen Square, which involved many deaths but is a non-event that left no trace in Chinese history.
And all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
The advantage Americans possess so far is that we have a tradition of open government, and while that shoe may pinch, as Joe Heller suggests, our local officials can only duck and dodge so much.
However they conduct public meetings, they really can’t schedule them on non-existent dates, and we can perhaps hope the attention focused on Coeur d’Alene will convince others that hired goons are not an acceptable strategy.
Though I suppose it’s the freelance goons we have to worry about. One of the theories being advanced about why our legislators vote in lockstep with the president is the “credible death threats” they get, not only for themselves but their families.
Unhinged True Believers are as bad as the young enforcers of the Cultural Revolution, though not as bad as the dark days of the Khmer Rouge when someone with eyeglasses could be identified as an intellectual and shot on the spot.
It’s frightening to see, as Zyglis notes, our system of checks and balances tottering, and the Supreme Court potentially reduced to issuing warnings rather than commands.
But it is somewhat comforting to see American and international cartoonists pointing out the difference between what our government is doing and what we the people want to see happen.
The current balance, however, cannot survive an attitude of “Well, it hasn’t gotten really bad yet” and a willingness to sit back and see what happens next.
Resistance requires that we accept the fact that very nearly half the voters chose this path, and focus not just on the hope that they will regret it but on boosting that regret without furthering the divide.
That is, the True Believer with the Trump flags and stickers on his truck isn’t likely to change his allegiance, so it’s critical to recognize him as unreachable and focus on less fanatical conservative voters.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Both cartoonists envision regret, though Sheneman depicts only Democrats as finding that tariffs on Canadian lumber and other building supplies will undermine their drive for affordable housing. I certainly expect conservatives to discover the same unhappy result, and, in fact, I’m counting on it.
From a pragmatic point of view, however, it’s doubtful that a boost in housing prices will be obvious in time to influence the 2026 midterms. To that extent, Sheneman is justified in use of the donkey, because it will be the people who work with the homeless and poor who will be able to see the clouds gather, rather than individual conservative househunters.
Zyglis casts a wider net, and the impact of Trump’s tariffs, as well as his other ill-conceived activities, will arise fairly quickly, and there will be a limit to how much longer he can blame the Biden Crime Family except among the most dedicated MAGA fanatics.
There are many who own the hats but are not totally dedicated to the cause, and many more who voted for Trump without even owning the hat.
That split shows up better in the German election results, where a parliamentary system allows for multiple parties and thus multiple choices. There’s a lot of handwringing over the gains of the Nazi-adjacent AfD, but they only control 16.4% of seats in the legislature.
Hardcore Americans in favor of a dictatorship are likely no more prominent among the 49% who voted for Trump rather than Harris.
Cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless.
We can’t expect bigotry to disappear, however, since there have always been those who object to women stepping out of the kitchen and to minorities mixing with the white folks.
Ramirez calls diversity a bad decision, but Mulan, Coco and Moana showed willingness to step out of Western Europe for inspiration, while the Princess and the Frog was set in New Orleans, where it’s logical to feature a multicultural cast.
The point of DEI is not to promote women and visible minorities beyond what they deserve, but to genuinely integrate them, such that both characters in movies and employees in offices are reflective of the real world.
Side Note: TV commercials have begun to feature a large number of mixed-race couples, but it sure seems rare that the minority half is Dad and the white half is Mom. Madison Avenue limits the risks it’s willing to take.
I wish I didn’t laugh so hard at LeLievre’s cartoon, but there’s some grace at this point in being old.
My mother wanted to live long enough to see Trump out of office, and she did, the saving grace being that, although she was still alive when he returned, she’s hit a point at which she’s not aware of such revolting developments.
Still, this is for her:
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