About a week ago, posters began popping up around Los Angeles that depict President Obama as the Batman’s nemesis – The Joker. Almost immediately, the press and a number of elected folks began crowing loudly about it, claiming that the mere fact anyone would make fun of our current President in this fashion was indicative of the racism, hatred, and just plain mean-spiritedness of our country.
(Posted up anonymously around Los Angeles)
Never mind that political cartoons have since our nation’s inception depicted the President and numerous other elected officials as everything from Mickey Mouse to Adolph Hitler. And we won’t even go into just how crude, rude, and downright unkind these depictions of famous people have been when offered on television by Saturday Night Live, Mad TV, and a host of others over the years.
How dare anyone poke fun at, or make fun of our current demagogue of choice! At least this seems to be the message of CNN/CNBC and much of the Democratic Party.
In the time since it popped up, the image, or variations of it have begun showing up all over the country, and as can only be expected – some have started profiting from it by selling merchandise. This of course only serves to further inflame the protesters.
As I mentioned already, this type of political commentary is nothing new in our country, and is just another part of our right to express ourselves as we choose. I would like to ask the folks who are so incensed by anyone being so derogatory and disrespectful (as some of them have called it) to our sitting President, why it is that they never said one word in July of 2008 when Vanity Fair magazine published this depiction of then President George Bush?
(Published by Vanity Fair magazine, July 2008)
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