CSotD: The Enablers
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Today's Prickly City is a good indicator of how Scott Stantis, one of the more thoughtful of the conservative cartoonists, is taking the Trump presidency.
For the less thoughtful on the right, the approach so far seems to be "Oooooh, I hate libtards!" rather than confronting any actual issues.
As noted previously, some are simply too lazy to put in the effort to find out what's going on, or they echo their fans' inability to process facts.
But the confirmation of Betsy DeVos is a good example of Trump's critics on the left missing fire.
Most of the DeVos cartoons seem to focus on how much money she donated to Republicans, which may have been a factor in her confirmation, but I'd find it more compelling if the GOP had stood up to Trump over anything or anyone else.
They haven't. A few have grumbled like an old dog awakened from a nap, but they struggle to their feet, stretch a bit and then allow the leash to be snapped in place and dutifully obey the command to heel.
Kevin Siers seems to have the best insight on DeVos and Dear Leader, but I don't see Pence as more than yet another GOP enabler.
Though at least he's coherent and fit for his office, which is one hell of a short yardstick but it's the one we seem to have.
If we were to end up with a Pence presidency — god willing — we'd survive it. I hated Nixon and Reagan, but I accepted them as competent, however much I opposed their policies.
But speaking of Reagan, here he is in a Steve Breen cartoon that addresses a much more puzzling, distressing and compelling situation than how much Betsy DeVos donated to anyone.
Granted, there are a lot of voters today young enough to know Reagan only as an airport and a name in the Republican pantheon, but it doesn't take much historical background to know that loving Russia's leader is not simply a change in direction for conservatives but utterly bizarre and bordering on traitorous.
As Stantis points out.
As Nick Anderson points out.
And as David Horsey not only points out in his cartoon but in the column that goes with it:
Besides being a bully who admires bullies, Trump is an ignorant man who lacks the intellectual capacity to comprehend that his loose words, shallow thoughts and brash actions can do serious damage to the country’s image and undercut American influence in the world.
And here's the central issue:
I'm appalled at Trump's statements, but not nearly so appalled by them as I am by the response of Republicans, which appears to be no response at all.
President Cheney's war did irreparable damage not simply to our image abroad but to the entire Western World: Had the damn fool left Hussein in power but tied down by sanctions and the no-fly policy, there would be no ISIS, no Syrian war, no stream of refugees into Europe, no trickle coming here.
That said, the WMD excuse was at least semi-credible. A bit translucent, but not transparently false. You could still support it if you kind of squinted.
You can't fake that kind of sincerity today.
I'd like to see polls that showed how many people who support the (pending) ban on refugee immigration until we do a better job of screening have any idea of what screening already happens.
I'd like any Senators or Representatives who support it to explain specifically why the current system is inadequate.
And I'd like to know why they are so supportive of a man who cozies up to a murderer and compares the assassination of domestic opponents to the deaths of people in a war, however unfortunate and poorly carried out that war may be.
Betsy DeVos isn't even the tip of the iceberg.
She's barely the frost on the bow of the Titanic.
And Trump's other enablers
Darrin Bell on the left-wing Social Justice Warriors who seem intent on keeping Trump in power.
Yeah, yeah, I've heard the explanations. So show me that the crazies are being paid by rightwingers. Catch one and get him to confess.
Until then, I'm putting that theory in the loony bin along with all the other false-flag conspiracies.
Meanwhile, I'm sick of the leftwing armchair revolutionaries who — on social media or in altie cartoons — insist that anyone who's not in the streets tearing things up is complicit.
In the wake of Brexit and the Trump election, some people began wearing safety pins to show their solidarity with refugees and minorities and their disagreement with the haters, but the SJWs on social media quickly shamed them as weak and inadequate.
Because why would you want millions of people to stand in solidarity if no windows are being smashed?
Maybe it was Russian trolls, posing as SWJs.
It's a little hard to tell who's undermining the nation out of foolishness and who's doing it for cash.
Reformed conservative David Frum not only wrote a very scary article for the Atlantic on how Trump may impose his authoritarian dictatorship, which I cited the other day, but has followed it up with a shorter but equally wise, perhaps wiser, piece on how to effectively oppose him.
The SJWs won't want you to read that, either, I'm sure.
Your moment of zen is in prose because I never recorded it:
(I wrote this in 1970. I didn't like the war, and I protested it, but I didn't like SJWs, either.
Still don't.)
(CHORUS) My babe is very elegant
My babe is very relevant
We talk about the Vietnam War!
We're down on hate and strife,
I'll love her all my life,
'Cause we talk about the Vietnam War!
I met her one fine day
Protesting the CIA,
We talked about the Vietnam War!
She saw me on the stand
With the microphone in my hand,
Talking 'bout that damn Vietnam War!
(Chorus)
We fell in love and how!
We found we both hate Dow!
We talked about the Vietnam War!
We caused widespread consternation,
Leading the very next demonstration,
'Gainst that hateful ol' Vietnam War!
(Chorus)
Our love will never cease,
We both believe in peace!
We talk about the Vietnam War!
Where it's at, our heads are there!
Why, we had front row seats for "Hair"!
And we talked about the Vietnam War!
(Chorus)
She fulfills all my needs!
She restrings my broken beads!
And we talk about the Vietnam War!
While there's war, I've got it made!
I never would have gotten laid
if it weren't for that damned old Vietnam War!
(Chorus and exeunt)
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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