CSotD: Be not a Meathead
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People keep saying that Trump is a feast for political cartoonists, and this past week has certainly offered plenty of fodder.
But too much easy living can leave you fat and lazy. The week's cartoons offered more laughs than insight.
On the other hand, some cartoonists have maintained their edge despite all the low-hanging fruit.
For instance, regular readers know how much I disliked "All in the Family" and may therefore guess how much I like Steve Breen's cartoon.
I was just 21 and didn't watch a lot of TV when it debuted, but we tuned in to watch this new breakthrough show.
For about the first half-dozen episodes.
However, the notion of spending 20 minutes listening to some bigoted jackass shoot his mouth off for the pleasure of having his children contradict him in the last three minutes seemed like swimming in a cesspool for the pleasure of taking a shower afterwards.
I honestly didn't get it and assumed it meant that Norman Lear and his pals lived in a golden world where such people didn't exist and, like rich, spoiled Carole Lombard in "My Man Godfrey," thought it amusing to go slumming among the proletariat.
I had many friends who lived on other people's couches because, unlike Michael and Gloria Stivic, they refused to use finances as an excuse to live in an atmosphere of unrelenting toxicity. So my appreciation of Michael's impassioned little weekly sermonettes was well offset by my contempt for his gutless, parasitical existence.
Which contempt I later transferred to St. Norman of Lear when he didn't sue to shut down the people who sold "Archie Bunker for President" gear.
If he ever honestly thought he was fighting bigotry, the elevation of Archie to folk-hero status should have convinced him that he was, instead, celebrating it and encouraging it to crawl out from under its rock.
So here we are, and how do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mister Lear? 
Clay Bennett suggests a remedy, but the fact is that hatred, bigotry and unbridled stupidity are not impeachable offenses.
It would be nice to find something that is, but it'll take more than the handful of dirty laundry that forced Spiro Agnew out of office, because Dear Leader is firmly ensconced and has friends in high places eager to keep him there.
Perhaps a power snake, but a simple plunger isn't gonna move this blockage.
And as Scott Stantis notes, don't expect a lot of cooperation from the man who pledged to be too busy to play golf and predicted he wouldn't even leave the White House because he'd be working so hard.
And who, as Steve Sack points out, pledged not to allow his personal holdings to interfere with his duties as President of all the people, especially the ones who live in swing states presided over by his avid supporters.
Florida could become an interesting place as more displaced Puerto Ricans take shelter there after the hurricane that Dear Leader has declared all better now, and gubernatorial candidates there are scrambling to distance themselves from the insult to their other immigrant citizens.
With the exception, as of 8:30 this morning, of Rep. Ron DeSantis, the candidate whom Dear Leader has endorsed.
Sack also commented on the shithole remark with what passes for restraint, given the number of cartoons depicting Trump's mouth as an anus.
Such restraint matters, because, while returning insult for insult is better than rolling over, Trump loyalists are already turning the focus on the offensive language in order to glaze over the far more offensive intent.
What I've seen on social media is an argument that, while "shithole" is a nasty word, Joe Biden was overheard to drop an F-bomb at the signing of the Affordable Care Act.
Which neatly sidesteps that Biden was expressing delight that people would get healthcare, while Trump was expressing his racist contempt for black and Latino people.
The takeaway being that one ought not to feed the trolls.
As Lear has proven, intentions don't count: Two minutes of "Oh, Archie — You're so wrong!" does not cancel 20 minutes of enthusiastic laugh tracks following the "lovable bigot's" every statement.
Speaking of feeding the trolls, I really like Nick Anderson's commentary but it reminds me of a conversation in the park the other day about whether you should have to tramp out into the woods to scoop when your dog has pooped in 18 inches of well-off-path, untracked snow.
The argument against being that people aren't going to walk out there and it will be gone by spring.
The argument in favor coming from an owner whose dog would very likely hurry out there in search of poopsicles.
Application to this cartoon: It is best to clean up everything, because trolls will eat anything.
Meanwhile, and on a considerably more lofty plane, Joel Pett marks the upcoming holiday with a reflection on values.
You just can't let the "shithole" comments go unanswered. It is absolutely necessary to drag them out into the light, regardless of how dirty you feel even dealing with them.
But a constant drumbeat of personal insults only stirs up the True Believers and increases the sense of persecution among the "Archie for President" crowd.
Arousing active opposition — getting decent people to the polls in November — means keeping them aware not just that we have a vulgar clown in the Oval Office but of what we're losing as a nation.
Here Pett takes advantage of the holiday to highlight the best we can be, in contrast to the current lack of effort to behave decently and to live up to our ideals.
Cartoonists need to avoid the temptation to simply draw the obvious cartoons this buffoonish bigot serves up.
What Sheridan said of writing applies to their craft as well:
You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading
This was on the stereo while Archie was on the TV
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