CSotD: A few crumbs amid The Great Cartoon Insight Famine
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"Cruz" sounds a lot like "cruise."
"Cruz missile." "Cruz control."
ummm … Did I already say "Cruz missile"?
And the Great Cartoon Insight Famine continues, buoyed by the endless discovery and rediscovery of that fascinating source of inspiration.
We could use a little insight about now, because too many cartoonists, while at least passing up the chance to be lucky 50,000th to pun on the Senator's name, persist in channeling Will Rogers and aimlessly blaming it all on an undifferentiated "Congress," as if the entire legislative branch of government were a fundamental flaw in the system.
If it isn't entirely childish, it certainly isn't helpful.
Here: If you're going to blame it on Congress, here's how:
It's a little embarrassing to have a Canadian cartoonist come up with the best depiction of a dysfunctional Congress, but note what Dale Cummings has brought to the argument: He's presenting us with a picture of something that should work but that is broken.
And he's doing it without the arrogant smirk and know-nothing pomposity that hides under the "aw-shucks" facade of the Will Rogers "Whatcha gonna do?" approach.
If nothing else, showing all Congressmen as clowns or putting vacuous, dismissive criticism in the mouth of an eternally exasperated Everyman, is cheap and lazy. You can't turn in rote crap like that and then complain about how little editorial cartoonists are valued these days.
This is nice, simple commentary. There is something mournful about the picture. This thing ought to work. This thing used to work. This thing is broken and needs to be fixed.
I think that, for someone commenting from across a border, it is better to be descriptive than prescriptive and, after all, Canada has its own problems. Cummings has the good taste not to try to tell us what to do about it, but he sure nails the "what it is" portion of the quiz.
Gary Markstein, on the other hand, is willing to suggest some blame. There are a lot of cartoonists predicting that we're going to have to go through all this all over again in a few months, but Markstein is willing to forego the cheap-shot Will Rogers pose of inevitability and say why.
It's only "inevitable" if nobody steps up on that side of the table.
And I'll also give some credit to conservative cartoonists who have, however sadly, stepped up to cast some blame at Republicans for a lack of coherent leadership and party discipline.
I rarely agree with Steve Breen, but this panel combines pragmatic insight with some damn fine and chilling artwork and I do agree with him entirely … today.
I suppose the true believers will dismiss it, but moderate Republicans and moderate conservatives in general should not.
And, having begun the topic with a note on homonyms, let me close with one on synonyms:
If "dissent" and "disloyalty" continue to be considered the same thing, what you're going to have here will be a dead elephant, regardless of how much the Tea Party pet store clerk insists that it's just pinin' for the Gipper.
Which leads to this inadvertant political cartoon:
Funny how an innocent cartoon can happen to pop up at a moment that renders it commentary!
Plus this one:
I don't mind taking the occasional poll, though the person-at-the-door version in today's Bottomliners is more a cartoonist's foil than a reflection of modern methods. Most polling is done by phone and the advent of cell phones has hindered getting a valid cross-section that way, for a number of reasons.
So I'm willing to represent reclusive, too-old-for-the-demographic citizens of uninteresting incomes. We may not have deserved Supreme Court Justice Roman Hruska, but we still should be heard.
But there's nothing more annoying than to agree to surrender 15 non-refundable moments of your life only to realize a little way in that it's a push-poll. Do you protest and hang up? Do you mess with their intentions? Do you give them what they want and move on? And does your solution depend on which direction they're pushing?
It is a puzzlement.
Why I still miss Jerry Bittle:
Speaking of cartoonists capturing my demographic, man, I miss this guy. And I don't believe in clogging up limited print space with reruns, but the Internet is a gift in that respect and I'm happy to revisit Geech and Shirley & Son every morning.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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