CSotD: Bringing the much-needed Wow!
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I don't have an iron-clad rule about avoiding political cartoons, as regular readers will know and newcomers can find by scrolling through the recent past. But I've been consciously putting them second or third in the daily queue as I collect the three or four potential candidates for CSOTD, for a couple of reasons.
One is that there's so much depressing stuff out there that I want a light touch and trust readers to move on to the heavier reading on their own, unless I'm either so outraged or someone hits the target with such dexterity that I can't resist it.
And the other is that, honestly, the targets are presenting themselves so blatantly that it's hard for a cartoonist not to score points. I'm just not finding a lot of political cartoons that bowl me over these days.
The political world — from the outrageous greed and moral blindness of Wall Street and its Congressional toadies to the array of self-destructing nincompoops contending for the GOP nomination — has become, for cartoonists, like the moving row of duck silhouettes at an old-fashioned carnival shooting gallery. All you have to do is hit one and then don't move your rifle again. Just leave it where it's pointed and squeeze off a shot as each duck moves into your sights.
That technique scores a lot of points, but, for the onlookers, it's much more exciting if the shooter picks off some of the other targets, the ones that whirl and whistle and shoot off sparks when somebody hits them and makes everyone say "Wow!"
But those things are hard to hit, and, when the ducks just keep coming, one after another, well, how can you resist?
Still, the ducks just fall over, and there isn't much excitement in watching that. Similarly, when the pickings are so easy for political cartoonists, the so-what factor begins to creep in.
I mean, how can you make Herman Cain look any more ridiculous, unelectable and absurd than he has made himself look? Can he still carry the women's vote anywhere outside of Stepford?
And Rick Perry made a speech at St. Anselm's College yesterday where he asked the students who were 21 to vote for him, apparently unaware that, a little over 40 years ago, the voting age was lowered to 18. He also asked them to vote on November 12, which is neither the date of the regular election next year, nor of the New Hampshire Primary, which is in January.
His campaign manager explained that he "misspoke" and a hundred editorial cartoonists threw down their pens and cried, "I was gonna say that!"
Granted, political commentators have a serious responsibility to point out stupid remarks. There was an election a few years ago where I think a lot of people assumed that one candidate was such an obvious fool that he couldn't possibly win, and he ended up serving two terms while Dick Cheney showed off every year by drinking a glass of water during the State of the Union address.
But it's hard to rally people with obvious pot shots at such sitting ducks. If the public can't figure out Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann on their own, what on earth are you going to present that will clarify things any further?
So today I'm reading along through my daily menu of strips, and I come to Willy 'n Ethel.
Wow!
There are strips that feature politics regularly, like Prickly City and Doonesbury. And it's been interesting to see that the reputedly "liberal" Doonesbury was taking shots at OWS last week, while the reputedly "conservative" Prickly City has been ripping the GOP candidates in general and their endless debates in particular.
There are also strips like Candorville that often dip into politics for a laugh, and quite effectively.
But Willie 'n Ethel is a simple gag-a-day about a goof-off and his long-suffering wife and, while it often cracks me up, it's never topical except on the rare occasions it will bring in some kind of current fad or overworked expression. It's certainly never political.
Except, I guess, when its general topic of poverty, failure and despair feeds into the zeitgeist, and Joe Martin hits one of those targets that spins and whistles and shoots off sparks and makes the onlookers, or at least this onlooker, say "Wow!" and say it twice as loud because it just freakin' came out of nowhere.
Political cartoonists who are busy drawing Rick Perry with his foot in his mouth, or Herman Cain offering pizzas to young ladies, or Mitt Romney wearing flip-flops should take a good look at this one, and then take a stroll through an OWS site, through their neighborhood barber shop, through the bar at their local American Legion, and see how many people — right, left and center — are echoing Ethel's feelings.
Quit shooting those damn ducks and make us say "Wow!"
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