Note to Readers
Just a reminder that we have installed
a new donation page.
If you are one of those readers who encountered technical
problems with our new Paypal account last week, I apologize.
I ought not to make it so difficult for people to give
me money. I think I’ve worked out all the bugs
now, so why not poke your head in there again and send
us a little somethin’. Pound notes, loose change,
bad checks, anything.
Artist's Statement
A sequel, of sorts, to 2004’s “The
Shithead Vote.” I began drawing this almost immediately
after the primary in West Virginia, where Obama lost
by a significant margin to Hillary Clinton, who in
exit polls was perceived by 100% of voters as “more
white.” He lost by a wide margin again last week
in Kentucky—like West Virginia, another of the
historical “bumfuck states.”
Kind of an awkward reality
for the media to have to deal with, here. On the one
hand, they have
to take this factor into account in handicapping their
electoral horse-race, plus any new perceived microtrend
or passing interpretation of significance in poll results
is fodder for rumination on the 24-hour news cycle.
Once every four years they have to treat every whim
and prejudice and superstition and wackjob theory of
the electorate as phenomena to be taken seriously.
Except the sticky part is, mainstream media also officially
likes to pretend that widespread racism no longer exists,
and that instances of racial prejudice are some sort
of atavistic aberration, like vestigial tails or cannibalism,
that can be exposed to the light of public disapproval
and purged from the body politic by the ritual of scandal,
outrage, reprimand, and scapegoating. The media raises
a hysterical outcry, someone apologizes or gets fired,
and we can all go as before. But there it is, this
ugly poll result nobody can ignore: 2 in 10 voters
in West Vriginia and Kentucky are citing race as a “major
factor” in their vote. Now I don’t want
to be a glass-is-half-empty man; 2 in 10 is better
than 10 in 10, which is what it would’ve been
fifty years ago. But those are still some wide margins
of loss, and it’s hard to politely ignore the
fact that there are still a lot of old-school racists
out there. The media is torn between the imperative
to take them seriously as a voting bloc and their
instinct to disapprove. So
they just neutrally report the numbers and avoid the
delicate “issue” while we all secretly
think to yourselves: crackers, hillbillies, bigots.
A few weeks ago a dining companion said
she was relieved that Obama had finally given in and
worn an American flag lapel pin, because it shut up
the sort of people who care about such things and took
that issue out of their arsenal. I understood what
she was saying, but I couldn’t bring myself to
feel the same way. I was disappointed that he gave
it to them. I can’t believe we still have to
take those people seriously and validate their idiot
bleating about God and country. Do we really have to
keep pretending, at this point, to give a shit what
those people think about anything at all? This country
is a wreck and a laughingstock today because those
people got everything they wanted for the last eight
years. Doesn’t it ever occur to any of these
yokels who don’t trust Obama because he can’t
bowl: hey, maybe I don’t want a guy
like me running the country, seeing as how I can’t
even pay child support or get the fucking cable turned
back on? Maybe I want somebody smarter than
me in charge for a change. We’re at a grave and
crucial moment in this country’s history, and
once again we’re held hostage by the dim suspicions
of people who think Obama is a Muslim Manchurian candidate.
The most powerful nation on earth, still shackled to
the idiot man-child of the South. The situation is
perhaps best synopsized by the Onion op-ed: “Yee-Haw!
My Vote Cancels Out Y’all’s!”
There
really is a Max Fightmaster, by the way. My colleague Emily’s
boyfriend ships CDs around the world, and one of the people
he sent an order to was one “Max
Fightmaster,” who is, even more unbelievably,
a soldier in Iraq. Thanks and an unironic salute to
Max
Fightmaster, wherever you are! |