Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 25, 2010

This isn’t funny, it’s true.

Good old Doonesbury, a mile to the left of Margaret Cho, as usual.

No, it IS true

Thanks, GT; we must never forget.

what]?!

No I know gnewt personally, he was a good guy not like those bast–er<3 libs. I know it cuz he told me so!

Hmmm… I think the Democrats could use a page from that playbook.

LOL - Ah it’s Spring! April Showers bring May Flowers & enough mud to have a really good mud fight. Lets see - who who be a good match up with a Pig Wearing Lipstick & looks good in a bikini…

While it still works for those who don’t look behind the surface gloss (or mud layer), it’s also still a commentary on the really pathetic level of our public discourse.

We can do much better, and need to soon!

SuperGriz said, about 4 hours ago

“Hmmm… I think the Democrats could use a page from that playbook.”

Say, Bud, the left perfected mudslinging years before Newt was born.

Really, Blackash? Suppose you find us some documented quotes where words like “sick,” “disgrace,” and “traitor” were used by the left wing against conservatives before Newt was born. Go ahead. I’ll go make a pot of tea while I wait.

wish we could see the text. Jonathan Winters had a bit about why the South lost the Civil War…..they were too slow….”hey, paul………watch…..out….thar’s….a…..cannon-….ball…..comin’……aw, gee.”

the ability to hate is common to all parties - the choice not to swiftboat is one that has been painted as sissy Jesus. why turn the other cheek, or refuse to dignify mudslinging with a response? There’s a way of winning by losing.

Y’all come round to the freedom of the slimed now, ya heah?

I’m thinking Sandra Bullock could beat the lipsticked pig.

I love politics. “this is going to be a clean campaign” Then enough money rolls in and the gloves come off on TV ads.

The hyphen in “fascinating”, making it “FASCI-NATING”, made me think of the word “Fascist”. I wonder if that was an intent of the cartoonist.

jrmerm,

That was my first thought, too.

Incendiary political sppech is older than the slogan “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.”

It’s not mud they’re slinging. It’s what they’re all full of.

Newt doesn’t hold a candle to Mr. Rove. Did I say Mr.?????

Nast wouldn’t have had a career without caricatures somewhat “hostile”. Julius Caesar took the ultimate critical commentary and backstabbing. Carville and Rove both have been well-paid. But from “the Acting President” on, deception, falsehoods, and egregious frauds based on violent intent have come mostly from the right. Many have been the tool, Newt wielded the tool.

Here’s a part of Ol’ Newt’s advice:

“Contrasting Words:

Often we search hard for words to help us define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.

decay… failure (fail)… collapse(ing)… deeper… crisis… urgent(cy)… destructive… destroy… sick… pathetic… lie… liberal… they/them… unionized bureaucracy… “compassion” is not enough… betray… consequences… limit(s)… shallow… traitors… sensationalists…

endanger… coercion… hypocrisy… radical… threaten… devour… waste… corruption… incompetent… permissive attitudes… destructive… impose… self-serving… greed… ideological… insecure… anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs… pessimistic… excuses… intolerant…

stagnation… welfare… corrupt… selfish… insensitive… status quo… mandate(s)… taxes… spend(ing)… shame… disgrace… punish (poor…)… bizarre… cynicism… cheat… steal… abuse of power… machine… bosses… obsolete… criminal rights… red tape… patronage”

Thanks for reminding us, GT…

We musn’t leave out Rush – he does it best and reaches far more people than any of the politicians – unfortunately. He also is calling for the demise of our president by whatever means it takes. I would contend that if there is an(other) assassination involved – this time we should hold him and others that are touting this “mud” accountable.

Maybe since they are finding political documents that have been archived they could find Obama’s personal records. You know the ones he had sealed by executive order on his first day in office. Not only the long form birth certificate, but everything from his kindergarten records to his state senate documents. You would think a editor of the Harvard law review, and an award winning author would want his personal records released. His actions of spending 2 million dollars of our tax money to hire lawyers to actively fight any case during a recession says otherwise.

Obama published his birth certificate on the internet, my apparently illiterate friend. They also published the three announcements of his birth that appeared in local papers at the time.

I see the Big Lie of repeating the same fraud over and over again has seeped into your somewhat grayish matter. State Senate documents can be found in Illinois records. Please stop lying. He has enough errors you should be able to win and finish destroying the country the next time without the continued unfounded lies.

Did you demand GWBs kindergarten records? Please grow up.

You cannot imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had a “Certificate of Live Birth” looking through my deceased mothers house a few months ago. I always thought Florida was a part of the United States. I never imagined it was part of Kenya when I was born.

blackash,

Mud, and other, slinging was perfected by humans a few million years ago.

Get hip, my man.

Anyone who thinks that slandering your opponent in American politics was invented by the GOP is woefully ignorant of history.

It is a time honored tradition that dates back to the Adams-Jefferson contest in 1796 at least. The Repulican party wouldn’t even exist for decades.

They railed against each other and smeared each others names and did not count the cost.

And yet Adams and Jefferson reconciled late in life.

On July 4, 1826, Adams and Jefferson both died, exactly fifty years after the adoption of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence.

(these words borrowed from:)

Timeline results for Adams and Jefferson

found in

Google search of Adams and Jefferson

I remember the Honeymoons (a rerun, I’m much too young) where Jackie Gleason was running for something and had Art Carney walking the streets singing “So and so is a bum bum bum.” This was my first introduction to politics. Years later it hasn’t changed.

Do the words “Libel’ or “Slander” exist in politics. I see both parties throw accusations that should throw them in jail. I ask, “Why doesn’t he sue him? Might there be a kernel of truth?”

lindz.coop wrote, “We musn’t leave out Rush – he does it best and reaches far more people than any of the politicians – unfortunately. He also is calling for the demise of our president by whatever means it takes. I would contend that if there is an(other) assassination involved – this time we should hold him and others that are touting this “mud” accountable.”

Wow, I’d wager you’ve NEVER listened to Rush Limbaugh. His only statement is “I hope he fails.”

Limbaugh has never called for BHO’s demise ‘by whatever means it takes’. I listen to his podcasts daily. You are grossly mistaken and likely a mud-slinger yourself.

It’s quite logical that all conservatives would hope a liberal would fail to enact liberal policies.

Rush has never wished anyone dead. I’m sure he, like me, realizes any assassination of any president or political person of any ilk is detrimental and harmful to our country.

Take for example the assassination of JFK. Does any liberal even acknowledge that JFK cut taxes as president thus creating economic growth through Johnson’s presidency? No, he was a liberal and now he’s an icon, even though not many liberals would recognize his politics and JFK would have never recognized Teddy’s politics either.

everyonerelax,

I think those minds were poisoned a long time ago.

If anyone doubts the depths of mudslinging that the Left can sink to, just watch Keith Olbermann a few times.

Personally, I’m in favor of hating people who deserve it and naming them for what they are. That is not to be confused with simple name-calling, which usually reveals not a depth of feeling as much as an inability to deal with people or issues rationally.

I suspect a great many people will hate me for these opinions and will call me a great number of things I am not.

pschearer,

Your hate filled post is making the Baby Jesus cry.

Good. I hate Baby Jesus.

Ah, the truth emerges…

Yup, history is such a hate-filled thing. Thus the cartoon.

I have the most terrible news: Rush Blimbo does not believe a word he says and never has.

Super Griz said, 1 day ago

“blackash,

Mud, and other, slinging was perfected by humans a few million years ago.”

Exactly, which makes me wonder why you would say you want the democrats “to use a page from that playbook” when they have been all along.

I’m “hip” to the fact that hypocrites can’t acknowledge that the left also uses mudslinging to advance their agenda.

Ravenswing said, 1 day ago

“Really, Blackash? Suppose you find us some documented quotes where words like “sick,” “disgrace,” and “traitor” were used by the left wing against conservatives before Newt was born. Go ahead. I’ll go make a pot of tea while I wait.”

Try “Mein Kampf” or “The Communist Manifesto” both well known left wing propaganda pieces.

Mein Kampf as liberal? Backash, your definition of “left wing” is bizarre: just because the Nazis called themselves socialists didn’t make them socialists. They were, quite proudly, fascists, which is a very different political philosophy.

Marx’s Communist Manifesto A} didn’t use words such as “sick”, “disgrace”, or “traitor”, because it wasn’t a propaganda piece– it was a philosophical treatise on government, and B} a true Marxist state has never been attempted. Marx’s (and Engel’s) treatise was based on the establishment of a communal government with a strong industrial base and educated proletariat– Marx was thinking in terms of Britain, where he wrote the Manifesto, or some nation such as Germany.

What was created first by Lenin in Russia, then Mao in China (followed by a variety of smaller states supported by them, including Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, Kampuchea, etc.) was Marxist ideas forced onto agrarian nations with large, uneducated populations of serfs and small entrenched aristocracracies. The revolutions worked well, because desperate, starving peasants are ready to throw off their aristocrats when given the chance; the governments worked terribly, because uneducated serfs aren’t prepared to govern themselves, leaving a vacuum to be filled by thugs with Marxist phrasebooks.

The only time I know of communism/socialism actually working as a model of governance predated Karl Marx by 18 centuries: try the Book of Acts, Chapter 4, beginning at verse 32 (“…and no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common”). It worked– but it only worked because the ‘political system’ wasn’t the goal, but merely a byproduct of their faith. Throughout the following centuries in Europe, the closest successful model was probably that of Benedict’s Rule, in which the community owned everything in common and elected its leaders, at a time when the world outside the monastic walls followed the feudal system in which serfs were virtually slaves belonging to their overlords. Far from perfect, but far better than anything else in existance… and it’s hard to argue that the monastic system was made up of a bunch of left-wing radicals(Maryknolls maybe, but not Benedictines!) (that was a joke), or that the Book of Acts is left-wing propaganda. But again, “communism” or “socialism” only worked because they were byproducts of the faith that was at the heart of the community: without that faith, they would have collapsed into anarchy or thuggery, as we have see in the secular world over and over again.

Representative democracy is a lousy system of government. Unfortunately, every thing else we’ve tried is worse.

@FCZ - Bravo!

You’ve nailed it. William F Buckley Jr among others said, “Communists are capitalist and Capitalists are capitalists.”

Look at China, those folks understand capitalism, heck they own 20% of our debt and make up a huge portion of our trade imbalance.

Look at Leonid Brezhnev, he owned how many cars? He was like a Hollywood star with his fleet of high-end luxury cars.

freeholder- Look at your post. First you call the right wing “racist” without presenting any evidence, and say that’s why they disagree with Obama (rather than addressing their arguments.) Then you go on to smear the right (and use a racist epithet against whites.) You seem to be doing exactly what you accuse others of; making unfounded racist statements and ad hominem attacks.

FCZ - Communes != communism. The first is voluntary (and, when successful, occurrs among a small group of likeminded people who can opt out voluntarily if they want) and the second is enforced. Kindof like the difference between sex and gang rape.

just because the Nazis called themselves socialists didn’t make them socialists.

The Nazis DID believe in (enforced) collective ownership of property, with that ownership governed through a centralized government. That’s a fair definition of government socialism as it was used then and now. (yes, Marx used Communism and Socialism interchangably. In modern times, we don’t.) The opposite is individual property rights. (A “right” being a private sphere of influence that the government does not have power over, or has restricted power over.)

“a true Marxist state has never been attempted.”

They’ve certainly been attempted. But the dictatorship of the proletariat tends not to “wither away” as Marx predicted. Unless you want to hedge and say a true state of any kind has never been attempted. But that’s just a shell game. Marx advocated the enforced collective ownership of property. This has been tried by Nazis, Communists and Socialists (including the much less catastrophic Democratic Socialists) with negative effects.

”was Marxist ideas forced onto agrarian nations.”

… yes, and the Nazis showed similar ideas (plus racist nationalism) forced onto an industrial nation.

FCZ said,

“Mein Kampf as liberal? Backash, your definition of “left wing” is bizarre: just because the Nazis called themselves socialists didn’t make them socialists. They were, quite proudly, fascists, which is a very different political philosophy.”

First of all I said Mein Kampf was left wing not liberal. I use the word liberal in the classic 19th century sense and not the modern one.

Second: National Socialists were left wing as were the Italian Fascists and any other fascist group in Europe or South America in the last century.

Third: Socialism, Communism, Marxist-Leninism, Maoism, Nazism, Progressivism, & Fascism are all half-baked secular religious and statist cults based on false ideas of human nature. They are all doomed to failure.