TOW #14 "Political Cartoon" Visual

I have always loved political cartoons.  Some Sundays, more often know that I'm graded for reading at least one of them, I just type in "political cartoon" into Google, and I come out with a new perspective on the political mosaic that is America.  Although I tend to lean more toward the right fiscally, I try to only analyze the political cartoons that remain neutral, or at least realize that no one person is responsible for the problems in America.  That's why I like this cartoon so much.


Let's start with the basic symbolism: the donkey is the liberal party and the elephant is the conservative party.  The paper the donkey is reading says "Tucson Tragedy".  This refers to the 2011 shooting of Gaby Giffords and eighteen others in Tucson.  In the aftermath of the shooting, conservatives and liberal took up arms against each other, each side blaming the other's key beliefs as responsible for this heinous act.

The cartoon gets at the heart of the political problems faced in America today.  Both sides appear to be friendly, as seen by the elephant and the donkey sitting together, drinking a beer, and wanting to return to the days where problems were discussed, not turned into radical extremism.  But, even with the two of them pretending to be friendly, their inner thoughts show a much different side to them.  Even after calling for "polite, political discourse", the two sides are still blinded by the stereotypes and stigmas that they hate each other.  And not only hate each other, they do not trust each other, as seen as they look at each other through suspicious eyes.  And that is the heart of the problem.  It's not the extremists, although they are very much a problem.  It is the people in power so blinded by their hatred of the other party that the success of the USA falls second.  This political cartoon is opening our eyes to how badly bipartisan politics in America is failing, and that people are hurt, like the nineteen injured or dead in Tucson.