CSotD: Classic cartoon — Mauldin on LBJ and AuH2O
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"I just happened to be passing by."
Over at Comics Riffs, Michael Cavna is marking the 10th anniversary of the death of Herblock, which is appropriate because they are Washington Post people and because Herblock was a giant.
It's worth a look not just to hear what other cartoonists have to say about him, and not just to have a look at some of his cartoons, but to remember an era when we seemed to care a lot more about each other and about the good of the country than we do today.
The above cartoon is not Herblock, but Mauldin. But the combination of Cavna's tribute to that other fellow, plus the events of the moment, made me think of this cartoon.
I watched about 15 minutes of the GOP debate last night, and the level of discourse was deeply depressing. Not only have the organizers ceased to ask the audience to be quiet but the candidates were clearly playing to the hooting, hollering yahoos.
And if you have been waiting for someone to ask, "Have you no sense of decency, at long last?" you had better brace yourself, because I don't think you're gonna like the answer.
The depressing thing about it is that I'm not even sure I blame the GOP. It's not that they are stooping any lower than anyone else, and, in fact, they're probably right in the mainstream.
Now, maybe it's just my turn to be an Old Guy when I object to a TV program in prime time that has the suggestion of "Shit" in its title, or to a mainstream ice cream company releasing a flavor called "Schweddy Balls." What was considered vulgar in one generation is innocent in another, and our parents felt the term "bitching" was inappropriate even when we meant "complaining" or, earlier in the argument, "really cool."
But there is an underlying hostility in the moment that I feel a right to object to, and it has crept in through a lack of anyone challenging it as it ratcheted up.
I had a radio talk show back in the early 80s, and the jocks doing the lead-in subscribed to a joke sheet that included scripts for Hiney Brewing Company commercials, with references to the founders, Thor and Big Red Hiney. It was very juvenile humor, but it was only a small part of their routine and I'm sure that, had people called in to object, management would have pulled the plug on it.
But nobody did and then we saw a progression from adolescent poo-poo humor to the more in-your-face Morning Zoo format of unbridled vulgarity and hostile, thinly-veiled racism and misogyny that is now a staple of radio.
I guess it's what people want, just as they have enjoyed the cruel freak show of "American Idol" where, in the opening weeks, the panel mocks people who are genuinely delusional about their talent. No company would have wanted their commercials on that show a generation ago, but times have changed.
I think I've mentioned "The Archie Bunker Rule" here before. I imposed that rule back when my boys were at home, which is that nobody who would not be welcome coming through the door was welcome coming through the TV.
And we bent it and fussed with it and the standard shifted over time, but it was there. And, of course, I knew they could go watch whatever they wanted at their friends' houses, but at least they grew up with a sense that you should challenge content and not simply accept it as the status quo.
But here's where "If you don't like it, don't watch it" becomes, to use one of those vulgarities, a load of bullshit:
I was waiting in her outer office one day to talk to a principal who was, at the moment, dealing with three girls who were not getting along. The door was slightly open and I could hear the distinct vocal patterns taken right from Jerry Springer, and, looking in, I could see their hands flying in the requisite gestures that go along with that hostile style that is one click away from a brawl.
These were fifth graders in a district so rural that there were cows in the field next to the school yard. Whether or not they had lovely home lives — and they dressed as if perhaps they did — they were not living in the mean streets. They were picking this stuff up strictly from TV and each other, and it wasn't just a matter of slang. It was a matter of open, toxic hostility.
The notion that changing the channel will shelter you and your family from this is ludicrous, because the world you have to live in is not changing the channel.
And if you heard the mob at the debate last night, you know that open disdain and hostility for those with whom you disagree, and for those who are different, has gone mainstream.
Which brings us to Bill Mauldin, who is not Herblock but walks the same hallowed corridor of cartooning history.
When Barry Goldwater ran for president back in 1964, his conservative viewpoint was unabashedly extreme, and, in accepting the GOP nomination, he famously said, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
But extremism was not viewed as part of how society should function then, and, with the help of those homeless GOP moderates, LBJ racked up an historic win by a vote of 486 to 52, and 61% of the popular vote, which was the biggest margin since 1820.
LBJ's victory remains the sixth most lopsided win in history, but it's important to note that the Republican primary had pitted Goldwater against candidates like Henry Cabot Lodge, Nelson Rockefeller and Margaret Chase Smith.
It was not necessary for LBJ to persuade liberal Republicans that they had been abandoned. They knew that. He only had to persuade them to vote their values and not their party affiliation.
I didn't see Henry Cabot Lodge up there on the stage last night, nor did I hear any of his supporters in the audience. And the GOP congress has been putting party affiliation above values in floor votes ever since Obama was elected.
Obama is going to have to do a great deal more in 2012 than simply pull over and open the door.
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