For the one year anniversary of Right-Wing Cartoon Watch, I thought it might be fun to look at the cartoons that inspired it, as well as offering a retrospective. (RWCW #25 is also now posted.)

Like many people, I’ve always enjoyed comic strips as well as editorial cartoons. I was also a comic book junkie as a kid. My dad introduced me to the great work of Carl Barks and Walt Kelly’s Pogo. When I was twelve or so, I took a couple cartooning classes through the Smithsonian (although at that point I was more into comic book art).

As the RWCW blurb says, most cartoonists have an irreverent and slightly anti-authoritarian streak. Most comedy has a bit of anarchy to it, after all. There’s certainly nothing wrong with expressing a conservative viewpoint, and most politicians deserve to be mocked or at least questioned, but I was quite struck by how extreme and far right the following cartoons were.

 

“CLASSICS”

Henry Payne, 6-27-05. This cartoon astounded me because by this time, there were plenty of legitimate, serious charges of prisoner abuse and torture, both at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Payne is not normally this rabid, but here he accuses the U.S. media of being reckless and actively anti-American. It’s a ridiculous and offensive charge, but this viewpoint is an article of faith among the far right.

Eric Allie, 6-2-06. Speaking of ridiculous and offensive charges, Eric Allie makes a monstrous, despicable one here. You may recall that Rush Limbaugh and many other right-wingers specifically used “glee” and similar words in relation to Haditha - it was quite the right-wing talking point. They charged those opposed to the war and occupation with celebrating the massacre of civilians and the subsequent investigation of the military personnel accused of perpetrated it. Needless to say, they couldn’t produce a single person who said anything of this sort. Good lord. Who would ever say, let alone think such a thing? How about mourning the dead, bemoaning that our troops are in a pressure cooker, investigating the incident and making sure justice is done? Atrocities make America look horrible, but what makes us look even worse is trying to cover them up or dismiss them. Yet how can one have a rational conversation with someone like Allie?

I think Allie and many other right-wingers actually believe this crap. It takes a certain degree of willing gullibility, eager ignorance and sheer hatred to do so. Read right-wing blogs, and you’ll see a typical response when they’re challenged to provide evidence for such charges is that their latest villains du jour ‘might not have said it, but that’s what they’re thinking.’ Some of this is surely conservative projection, but I find it troubling that the simple concepts of justice and discovering the truth are so foreign to Allie and his ilk. Similarly troubling is their tendency to attack all empiricism and dehumanize any and all perceived opponents.

Allie’s cartoon is remarkable for its sheer propaganda and pure, unfounded hatred. If Allie is only shilling, he’s a particuarly unconscionable hack, but if he’s sincere (as I believe he is), he possess a extremely troubling psychopathology sadly all too common on the far right.

Michael Ramirez, 2-8-06. Rather than a rational argument, Ramirez prefers to offer a punch in the face. There’s absolutely no reason the U.S. can’t catch terrorists and still get warrants, especially considering how extraordinarily permissive the FISA laws are and the FISA court has been. If the Bush administration can’t hack it, they should resign and let people that can and want to do a competent job handle it. Many reasons exist for not giving unaccountable power to anyone, but such crucial, serious issues are of no interest to Ramirez. Speaking of propaganda, here Ramirez makes an emotional appeal and a ridiculous and offensive charge: “Support the specific extreme policy we advocate, you terrorist-enabling idiots, or you’re all going to die!” This Ramirez cartoon is the earliest example I’ve seen of a motif you’ll see repeated throughout this installment (although there may be earlier pieces).

 

THE ASAY GALLERY

With Chuck Asay, it wasn’t one cartoon as much as the corpus of work. After discovering one of his pieces, I was so astounded I read back through at least a year’s worth of his cartoons.

3-9-06. Asay, a far right Christian, demonstrates his ignorance of the Constitution and our nation’s founding. There is a difference, too, between proselytizing and having a conversation. But sure, the best way to win the hearts and minds of Muslims is to lecture them about why they should convert to Christianity.

8-25-06. As they saying goes, “Conservatives say government doesn’t work, and then set out to prove it.” Yes, the failures of the Bush administration prove that government itself doesn’t work, rather than the obvious, that the Bush administration is incompetent. And let’s all celebrate the death and destruction of 9/11 and Katrina, shall we? Every disaster has a silver lining!

8-26-06. Asay continues on his compassion kick. Who gives a damn about human suffering when your premiums aren’t increasing? It’s a good thing, too, because those insurance companies are really strapped for cash, never deny valid claims and work to keep those premiums as low as possible for the average consumer. They’re a selfless lot, really.

8-2-06. Talk about compassion! Asay’s drawn some pretty loathsome cartoons on Israel-Palestine-Lebanon and is quite the Islamophobe. Here, if innocent civilians get killed in an Israeli bombing, it’s all Hezbollah’s fault. How convenient.

8-22-05. Asay’s drawn many cartoons attacking the ACLU, all with straw man arguments, making this a quintessential Asay cartoon. Notice that the teacher isn’t even asking for prayer, but merely a “moment of silence.” I get really sick of reiterating it, but prayer in school is not illegal. Mandatory, teacher-led prayer is illegal (in a public school), and if Asay had kids attending a school mandating praying to Allah five time per day, he might finally get it. Nothing like Asay’s scene has ever happened in the U.S. as far as I know. Given the circumstances, even if the teacher led with “We pray to Jesus Christ…” she’d probably receive a little chat, but not a lawsuit.

(Update: I forgot to note that Asay is saying the ACLU is worse than the Taliban, you know, those people who murder teachers who teach girls or offer an unapproved curriculum, and have cut off many a person’s hand as a punishment for other supposed transgressions. Wow, there’s some hyperbole, all the more ironic considering Asay’s views on religion in secular society.)

 

Moving on, here’s the Blue Herald archive of past installments, and you can see a few highlights for each installment at the companion site here.

From the several hundred cartoons we’ve covered, here’s some highlights from the loose category that’s most essential to right-wing demagoguery:

 

THE DEMOCRATS ARE TRAITORS! AND COMMIES! MUSLIMS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! AND YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

Paul Nowak, 9-24-06. Seem familiar?

Cox and Forkum, 10-3-06.

I’m not going to include all of the “Democrats are cowards” white flag cartoons, because there are simply too many, but here’s a representative one from Michael Ramirez on 10-26-06.

Glenn McCoy, 10-26-06.

Paul Nowak, 10-29-06.

Chuck Asay, 11-3-06.

Ken Catalino, 11-8-07, the day after the Democrats retook Congress.

Michael Ramirez, 11-9-06.

Bob Gorrell, 12-11-06. This doesn’t directly slander Democrats, but forwards a dangerous, erroneous GOP talking point. More discussion can be found in the original installment.

Ken Catalino, 1-9-07.

Michael Ramirez, 1-16-07, depicting Congress as an Iraqi insurgent’s IED.

Bob Gorrell, 2-14-07.

Ramirez, 2-12-07.

Ramirez, 2-19-07.

Eric Allie, 2-20-07.

Eric Allie, 2-22-07.

Ramirez, 2-22-07.

Paul Nowak, 3-14-07.

Paul Nowak, 4-1-07. He normally duels with Cox and Forkum for most Islamophobic cartoon of the week, although Chuck Asay and Eric Allie sometimes win the prize. Remember, being multicultural “fetishists,” liberals hate America and approve of oppression in other countries.

Michael Ramirez, 4-6-07. In right-wing circles talking to someone makes you their stooge, and diplomacy is inherently a failure, because military action is always best. Along with Cox and Forkum’s never-ceasing “Bomb Iran!” campaign, there are many other conservative cartoons with this general theme.

Henry Payne, 4-6-07.

Chuck Asay, 4-11-07.

Ken Catalino, 4-18-07. Democrats as Iraqi terrorists.

Scott Stantis, 4-27-07.

Chip Bok, 4-30-07. Needless to say, Reid never said this about the troops. I don’t have room for all the attacks on John Kerry, although you can see most of the 2006 set here and here.

Lisa Benson, 5-1-07.

Gorrell, 5-4-07. The authoritarian conservative lie is that dissent and dicussion makes a nation weaker, when in fact it makes it stronger.

Eric Allie, 5-10-07.

Chip Bok, 5-14-07.

Cox and Forkum, 5-24-07. This is a clever design but posits a false choice. Peace is hardly incompatible with funding the military. It’s not as if we’ve been at war every year the Pentagon has had a budget! Furthermore, most experienced generals don’t view war eagerly, but as an unwelcome necessity and last option.

Ken Catalino, 5-16-07. As we covered before:

Notice the underlying narrative he’s pushing. The insurgents are the same as dirty stinkin- hippies. Hippies and liberals are traitors. Democrats are also cowards and appeasers. You can-t trust them to kill the folks that need killin-, and they can-t be trusted with national security! Vote Republican in A-08!

Chuck Asay, 5-30-07. Fear the impending takeover of Europe and America by the evil Muslims!

Benson, 5-31-07. Several cartoons have accused the Democrats of being Communists.

Eric Allie, 6-5-07.

Paul Nowak, 7-4-07. If you’re not hysterical and bigoted enough for Nowak’s tastes, you’re not taking terrorism seriously. Yes, the media is happy when people die, because that’s the sort of monsters they and liberals are.

Cox and Forkum, 7-20-07.

Ramirez, 8-10-07. He really likes this motif.

Nowak, 8-19-07. Everyone the U.S. has ever imprisoned must be guilty, even the ones the government now reluctantly admits are innocent. Let’s save some time and just kill them all.

Ken Catalino, 8-27-07.

Mike Shelton, 8-30-07.

Benson, 9-11-07. Conservative cartoonists have crashed a whole fleet of planes.

Asay, 9-13-07. He often depicts Muslims with flies buzzing around their heads. Here he forgets to say “Islamic extremists” or one of his usual hedges, and slams all of Islam, which includes several million of his fellow Americans. But no, he’s no bigot.

Henry Payne, 9-19-07. We started with him, and end with this entry from the latest regular installment.

 

Seeing the recurring motifs is pretty striking. Thanks to all the featured conservative cartoonists for steadfastly elevating our national discourse.

I follow non-conservative cartoonists too, but honestly just can’t find anything comparable to this set from liberals in terms of the accusations leveled. You’ll find plenty criticizing Bush on his stubbornness, political calculations and seeming disregard for the dead and suffering, but charges of “traitor” and variations on “we’re all going to die unless you shut up and do what we say” (and shred the Constitution) are extremely rare if not non-existent.

It’s also not as if conservative cartoonists exist in a vacuum. Most of the pieces above essentially illustrate right-wing talking points, and you’ll see/hear similar sentiments all the time on conservative talk radio, on right-wing blogs, from prominent columnists and on political talk shows. As we (and many others) have covered before, liberals and progressives just aren’t remotely comparable to movement conservatives in terms of their extremity or their reflexive endorsement of violence.

Still, Republicans and the David Broders of the world will still ply their false equivalencies and clutch their pearls over the terribly uncivil left.

Editorial cartooning is a fine American tradition, and as always, we celebrate the right of cartoonists of all sorts to mock others, as well as our right to mock them.

That’s it for now! Thanks for an interesting first year.