Category Archives: obituary
Big Voice on the Right, Rush Limbaugh 1951 – 2021, RIP
Rush Limbaugh was “The Big Voice on the Right.” He earned his self-proclaimed title when Ronald Reagan dismantled the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. That allowed radio stations to broadcast Limbaugh’s raucous conservative opinions without giving equal time to offended liberals. It was a winning formula, and in the process he saved AM radio.
And he continued to dominate conservative talk until he died yesterday of lung cancer.
Big Voice on the Right
He was an entertainer who knew and respected his audience. But he also had an uncanny knack for stringing together news items and ideas to make a witty point. Almost always mocking the left. The left is lucky he didn’t draw.
Rush claimed to know liberals like “every square inch of his glorious naked body.” And, thanks to “talent on loan from God,” he claimed he could beat them with “half his brain tied behind his back.”
So that’s why I figured I had an original cartoon idea – yesterday. Rest in peace, Rush…
More great minds….
I, for one, say thank you to Rush for airing those views all these many years with his “talent on loan from G-d,” with the hope that it remains “on loan” for many more years to come.
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky, Jewish World Review
Oy.
Poppy Socks
Bush Funeral All About Humility
Click on someone humble to enlarge the image.
The funeral for President George H. W. Bush was beautiful, and informative. W’s eulogy was touching.
I drew Bush 41 a lot, and felt like I understood him pretty well as a goofy but decent guy. And I was aware of of his other virtues like integrity, kindness, courage, high speed golfing and fishing, airplane jumping and lip reading. But hearing the speakers, all of whom were close to him and loved him, one virtue seemed to stand out – humility. Maybe that’s because it’s a rare commodity these days, especially in Washington. Anyway, former Senator Alan Simpson nailed it in his warm and witty eulogy:
Those who crave the high road of humility in Washington , DC are not bothered by heavy traffic.
Then the camera panned to President Trump and the past presidents the front row and, well, this cartoon idea kind of jumped out.
It’s not often you get a pack of presidents together in one shot. So I try to make the most of it. Here’s a cartoon I drew when they gathered for Nixon’s funeral.
Click a president to enlarge the image.
Maybe I’ll do the Bush bunch pondering, “If Perot hadn’t run…”
I know. I left Jimmy Carter out of the humility cartoon. It’s not the first time.
Click a football helmet or the lump on President Ford’s head to enlarge the image.
Poppy in Cartoons, R.I.P.
Our 41st president George H.W. Bush died over the weekend. And the media has been heaping praise on him ever since. He was a man of great virtue. And the fact that his virtues – he was a genuine war hero with modesty, honesty and compassion – fit a narrative in sharp contrast to our 45th president may have something to do with it.
Here are some Bush 41 cartoons, along with text, from my book The Recent History of the United States in Political Cartoons, A Look Bok:
Click to enlarge.
Bush sought the Republican nomination for the 1988 presidential election and found it difficult to gain attention and traction while serving as vice president to the spotlight-savvy Reagan.
Click to enlarge.
George Herbert Walker Bush had run against Reagan for the 1980 Republican nomination. Reagan’s platform was for increased military spending and tax cuts. Reagan subscribed to a theory called “supply-side economics,” illustrated by the Laffer Curve, cooked up by economist Arthur Laffer. He predicted the tax cuts would cause so much new economic activity that tax revenues would increase enough to replace the money lost though tax cuts. During the campaign Bush called it voodoo economics. When the vanquished primary candidate Bush later became Reagan’s vp, many true believers questioned his conversion.
Click to enlarge.
The wimp factor was really a creation of the press.
Click to enlarge.
Budget Director Richard Darman fretted quite a bit about balancing the budget – especially in light of President Bush’s understated campaign pledge: “Read my lips, no new taxes.” Eventually Darman convinced Bush to raise taxes, sealing his fate, if not his lips, as a one-term president.
