For those of us who read the newspapers, be it local, state or national newpapers, we are all aware of the political comics that pop up. They usually appear in the Opinion sections or somewhere close to it. And one of the more popular political comics in the newspapers is Doonesbury.
I have read it from time to time as it is somewhat funny even when they are slamming people I back, such as President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, or Secretary of State Powell.
Gary Trudeau, the man behind Doonesbury is no stranger to politics as he is a backer of the Democratic Party who donated his money to them and makes his feelings known thorughout his comic. However this time I feel that he has gone too far.
Matt Drude of the Drudge Report broke the story about Trudeau comic that ran in newpapers across the country on Sunday 19-NOV-01. In this comic, Trudeau depicts Preisdent Bush giving thanks to "Evildoers" for allowing his agenda to get pushed through. Stating that many of the items on the presidents agenda would never have gone through were it not for the attacks of September 11th on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
While I am all for a persons right to free-speech and political views I think Trudeau has taken this too far. The idea that President Bush would give thanks to this terrorist for being able to push his agenda is monkey crap at best.
Items like missle defense, drilling for oil in Alaska, and tax cuts for individuals and corporations would have happened regardless. I think it is hard for anyone to agrue any other way. So for Trudeau to say that this war has brought about justification for these issues is saying that there was none before that and he is just wrong.
Yes, it is true that no missle defense would have stopped the WTC and Pentagon attacks. But missle defense is not to stop planes but missle. Hence the name, "Missle Defense System".
The issue of drilling for oil in Alaska, I believe is something that would have happened anyway as well. As a nation we have become too dependent on the Middle East and OPEC for our nations oil when we have more then enough here. It would have been harder to get something like this in the past but it would have happened.
Take a look around Alaska now. Environmentalist did not want the Alaska Pipeline when it first started claiming it would have done more harm to the environment and animals there. Fact of the matter is that the animals began to thrive and the environment was not harmed. The same would be true once we start drilling for our own oil. I cannot see in to the future but I do know that we had the technology then for the Alaskan Pipeline and what has come out of it, we certainly have it now to make sure we do this safely and correctly.
Furthermore, Trudeau noted that it is considered to be "unpatriotic" right now to critize President Bush. This is just outright stupid to say something like this. Yes, the president's popular is hovering around the 85-90% area. The nation is unified. But if he or his administration does something wrong we do have the right to critize them and still be patriotic. This is still America.
While all of this bothers me, it pails in comparasion to when he depicts President Bush saying "Thanks, Evildoers". Giving them credit for being able to carry out his agenda. Often Trudeau has portrayed the president as some inviable person under a cowboy hat acting as a fool. And he has a right to do that if that is what he feels. But this is taking it too far.
Unfortunately, I do not think that Trudeau and people like him understand that. Otherwise, why put something as tasteless as this in his comic. This was very tasteless and disgusting in my view. I do not plan on continuing to read this comic anymore and will contact my local newspaper to discontinue this comic for these reasons.
Is this infrenging on Trudeau's freedom of speech or am I playing in to Trudeau's hands by trying to punish him for critizing the president? While it would appear as such this is not the case. What is the case is that Trudeau's statement of the president thanking the terrorist are inaccurate, ignorant, and very disgusting. Everything else I would have been upset at but that would be the price of doing politics and I would have done what I could to agrue against it. But this last part is something else.
Again, I am going to urge that this comic be discontinued. I would urge you all to do the same. Unfortunately, in this era of political apathy and liberalism running unchecked (even enlight of President Bush's job approval ratings) I doubt this will happen. And that disturbs me even more.
