Nancy Classics by Ernie Bushmiller for May 24, 2017

Which is OK, usually, but not if you’re the President putting pressure on the head of the FBI.

Nancy should ask him if he’ll still be loyal, even if she colludes with Russia.

I assume that this strip has its basis in the sociopolitics of the 1950s, but surprisingly, it’s still current.

Sluggo’s going “all in” that when Nancy grows up she turns into a hottie like Fritzi…meow!!!

Next question: " Sluggo, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communistic Party? Answer yes or no!"….

This strip is from about the middle of the year 1950. Yes, the terms loyalty oath, loyalty test, and the like were in zeitgeist and in the news that year. Truman’s executive order of 1947 was in force having been created out of fear of American citizens who might be loyal to, say, the USSR, our ally in World War II, recently concluded. From January through the rest of 1950, much of the public discussion concerned the state of California’s effort through the Levering Act to require oaths disavowing a variety of beliefs then deemed radical. The effect was especially noxious at the University of California. Between resignations and firings over refusal to sign such oaths, the University lost over three dozen faculty, including world renowned physicists, psychologists, and other great scholars. Some lives were ruined but other of those fired finally had the last laugh. One, for example, became president of the university about 25 years later. Among those refusing to sign were faculty members who were Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, including Erik Erikson. This nonsense went on for a couple of decades. Some nearly universally beloved figures were even endangered. Lucille Ball was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee because she had been registered to vote as a Communist in the mid-1930s. She had apparently registered to please her grandfather, a believer in the communist cause. That would have destroyed her career if she were anyone less than America’s adored LUCY!

Honestly, I didn’t expect people to get this when I saw it this morning. We’ve got some smart folks here! Or, OLD folks, anyway….

The reason Sluggo is loyal to Nancy is that he gets FREE FOOD here, in your house-hold.

I guess this referred to a government loyalty test at the time designed to ferret out commie spies.

We borrowed the idea of loyalty tests from Nazi Germany. Hey, it worked for them…

Holy Gene McCarthy!!