Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 9/08/04

Artist's Statement

Both Megan and Myla pointed out, politely, that this cartoon is somewhat unfair. The Left does have its share of unattractive women--mostly aging, desiccated, frizzy-haired communists. And I’ll admit that there are some conservative women who are attractive in the boringly conventional manner of cheerleaders and class presidents, but the ones so dedicated to their cause that they show up at protests are invariably trolls. I will say in my defense that the women in this cartoon are all drawn from life: the Ladies of the Left are both composites of girls I saw at the Axis of Eve’s mass panty flash in Battery Park Wednesday evening, and the two on the Right were counterprotesters at the big march on Sunday (see my dispatch from the R.N.C. for full details). It’s hard to avoid the speculation, sometimes, that underlying the murderous love pro-lifers feel for the Unborn is a jealous, judgmental rage against women who fuck. When you cut away the bullshit ideology, the political divide in this country comes down to this: Liberals are pro-sex and anti-death; Conservatives are anti-sex and pro-death. Come on—if you’re going to political rallies to pick up chicks, you’re not going to Operation: Rescue or NRA-sponsored events. You’re going to NARAL marches and antiwar demonstrations. The Right simply does not have the firepower, as it were, to match the awesome hotness of the Left. The best they can do is Ann Coulter. Sex is on our side. Truth is beauty, and beauty truth. I love this cartoon, precisely because it is so blatantly, unashamedly unfair!

Although she is not attractive, I do feel a terrible pity and love for the seated woman with the “I’m Proud of Bush” sign. She was Korean, I think, so you should hear her slogan in an accent. She looked so defeated, so wilted by sun and the parade of thousands of protesters with their obscene and insulting signs. I want to cheer her up. I want to protect the illusions, cheap and fragile as collectible Elvis plates, on which her worldview is founded. I want to make her proud of President Bush again.

Several readers have written to urge me to market T-shirts of my cartoon "1 Termers." Very well then. I am now selling "1 Termer" T-shirts through cafepress.com. You can order yours at http://www.cafepress.com/thepain for a mere $15.99. These will serve to rally potential voters in the remaining weeks before the election and become grim items of memorabilia after Bush's illegitimate victory. Some of the proceeds may go to the Kerry campaign or MoveOn.org, or, depending on the poll numbers, I may just blow it all on booze.