CSotD: A theme emerges …
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For a little over a decade, I would go into high schools and spend the day lecturing on political cartoons.
I'd begin by talking about the partisan press, how, a century or so ago, each town had two papers — Republican and Democratic — and they would launch totally one-sided, predictable attacks on their opponents, which was a great lead-in to Thomas Nast, the little Republican pit bull who not only took down the Democratic Tweed Ring, which was admirable, but then attacked any Democrat for any reason, including being an Irish Catholic, which was less admirable.
But, as we segued to Bill Mauldin, a less partisan, more thoughtful process began to emerge, and we talked about that, and that led to the current cartoons. I didn't bother with the bomb-throwers of the extreme right or left, because, at the time, there were plenty of people in the middle making sensible points, albeit from a liberal or conservative perspective.
I noticed, between the first presentation in 1994 and the final time I did it in 2006, that explaining the 19th century partisan press became easier and easier. They knew about Fox and, while MSNBC hadn't really emerged yet, it wasn't hard to frame an opposite.
I'm glad I don't do that anymore, because the bulk of political cartoons have degenerated into such mindlessly partisan claptrap over the past few years that, in order to cover the topic, you can't just show the thoughtful ones.
And the cartoonists are simply mirroring the overall level of political discussion. Roger Ailes deserves some blame, but the Internet — where nobody can tell you're a dog or, for that matter, a liar or simply a fool — certainly shares in that.
Now, as things roll towards November, I wonder if the extremes of partisanship have begun to fall out of favor?
Republicans are painting themselves into a corner in which the fall election may be a referendum on whether the apparently most extreme people in the country really are a majority or just the loudest voices in an otherwise moderate nation.
Don't take my word for it. To read the public mood, just read the comments section of the papers, which have begun to carry a strong message of "how soon can we get these people out of there?" against extremists.
And that's new — a few months ago, liberals spoke of their disappointment in Obama and their lack of incentive to "vote for the lesser of two evils."
This appears to be the central question in the coming election, and leads to an emerging theme that does not bode well for the GOP, however people actually feel about Obama.
Scott Stantis, at Prickly City, continues to push the candidacy of Kevin, the Lost Bunny of the Apocalypse, a character created in the last election cycle who has emerged as less and less of a freak, not because Stantis has adapted him but simply because the three-dimensional world is catching up with the joke.
Stantis is an old-style conservative, which is to say, a thoughtful person with a sense of fair play who happens to hold conservative values. And who is poised to have a lot of fun with Kevin before this is over.
Drew Sheneman, without the assistance of an established psychopathic rabbit to make the point, takes a more straightforward approach. I have to believe there are a lot of moderate Republicans with that same sorrowful expression, watching this campaign and wondering how it all came to this.
For a time, it looked like a repeat of the campaign in which the GOP conceded Clinton's re-election and simply gave Good Old Bob Dole his lifetime achievement award in the form of a nomination.
Now it's beginning to look more like a repeat of the campaign in which the Democrats gave in to their extremist fringe and handed the piloting duties to George McGovern, who promptly set the aircraft on fire and augered it into the ground.
I have no idea who Steve Breen thinks that guy in the middle is, though I suspect it has something to do with gunboats and Panama.
I happen to be writing about TR at the moment and quickly learned that the GOP nominated him for vice-president because he was kicking Big Business around the block as governor of New York and they wanted to wedge him into a position where he would become completely ineffectual.
Which worked really well for several months, until Leon Czolgosz stepped up at the Pan American Exhibit and assassinated Standard Oil.
Besides going after the trusts, Roosevelt also stopped a UMW strike by negotiating higher pay and better working conditions and led the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.
I just don't see him as the GOP Poster Boy for the coming election.
But, okay, he's not Mitt Romney. Not by a long shot.
Tom Toles enunciates a strong current theme in commentary, which is that Obama just has to sit back and let his opponents hammer each other. Toles is not the only cartoonist to have picked up on the notion.
It's a theme so obvious you can see it from as far away as Norway.
Which brings us back to Sheneman's depressed elephant.
I don't have an answer for you, there, Jumbo, but I feel your pain.
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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