The Power of the Political Cartoon

Though subjects here will clearly be reminiscent of the current political climate they merely reflect life in America since the white man arrived from abroad.

My interest was sparked by the cover story, “Win, Lose & Draw: The Power of the Political Cartoon”, in our local newspaper’s Pasatiempo weekly magazine. The article was about the renowned cartoonist Pat Oliphant who is a long-time resident of Santa Fe. An Oliphant cartoon from 1970, when the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia and rising inflation and unemployment as well as Nixon’s diminishing approval rating, shows numerous Democrats leapfrogging to be Presidential candidates.

When I set off researching, I found that the first political cartoon published in an American Newspaper is credited to the Pennsylvania Express of May 9, 1754. It was created by none other than Benjamin Franklin. It was his call to the British colonies to unite against their enemies the French and the Indians. It shows a snake cut in eight pieces each with the initial of a colony at the time.

Some 40 plus years later we are no longer fighting the French or the British but rather amongst ourselves. This was a fight on the floor of Congress between Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold of Connecticut. The controversy was over the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. These were a series of laws passed by Congress in that year that restricted the free speech and the rights of non-citizens.

It is hard to find anything amusing from the Civil War, period, though I did have to chuckle at this image of General Ulysses S. Grant whooping the rear end of General Robert E. Lee. It refers to the Wilderness Battle during the Overland Campaign.

Illustrated in this 1924 cartoon is Senator William Borah giving a speech to Congress about corruption in campaign contributions which the Senate was investigating. Cartoonist Clifford Berryman responded thusly to his words.

In 1934 the country (not to mention the world) was still suffering the results of the Great Depression. FDR is shown as a doctor with a bag of New Deal remedies for an ailing Uncle Sam while Congress is a nurse wringing its hands with worry over whether Roosevelt’s grandiose plans can work.

The political cartoonists’ addition of humor to current controversy often allows us to consider two points of view. In this cartoon, the leaders of Israel and Egypt pointed their peace signs in opposite directions when President Jimmy Carter greeted them. Carter ultimately worked out a peace treaty between President Begin and President Sadat which was signed in 1979 known as the Camp David Accords.

Here is another controversy over which a great deal of ink has been spilled and I fear may be coming up again. I do not believe it requires any more explanation.

To prove there is nothing new under the sun I will conclude with a cartoon about the currently hot issue of immigration. Of the many cartoons I found on the subject over our nation’s history, here is one from over 150 years ago.

Joni Mitchell’s song "The Circle Game" keeps coming to mind, as the chorus goes:

"And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game."