Pen Droppings

[richardf8]

I haven't been able to bring myself to do a political cartoon since the election, but today, this idea came upon me, so I sketched it out at work with gel-pen on bond paper. I couldn't find my pencil, so this is the totally unrehearsed product of my pen.



The different ways liberals and conservatives parse the messages they receive is something that has been occupying my mind quite a bit of late. This is also the first time I've drawn people from the rear, and I'm kind of pleased with how they turned out. I do wish I had made the TV big enough to do more with my Bush caricature.

Comments

[kevinjdog.livejournal.com]

This is pretty much how I see the disparity. The only similarity is "somewhere, someone wants to screw me over".

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

I don't know, it's a little superficial on the part of the Republican. The thing is, it's simply an article of faith among a lot of younger people that they will never collect SS because the system will go broke long before they're eligible. I've been hearing that since I got my first burger-making job in the '70's. After years and years (and years) of conservatives hammering that point home. Bush is hoping to capitalize on this future bette noir they've created enrich his cronies in the present by telling younger voters that now they'll get something. After all, 5% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

One of the few actually good things that Reagan (and the congress under him) did was to fix Social Security well into this century. Now instead of emulating his hero Ronnie, Bush chooses to emulate his brother Neil because, after all, some future government will have to fix the mess he creates just like a past government bailed out the S&Ls: at our expense. It's the naked, greedhead cynicism that galls me more than anything else. After all, the money need to "fix" Social Security is less than the deficit he created with his war and his tax cuts to his rich cronies.

If Bush really wanted to do what he says he does for younger people, he would do something to make IRA accounts more attractive to twenty-somethings in the present and leave fixing social security for a later, more capable government.

It is my sincere hope that this thing backfires on Bush so hard that we all end up with an actual federal retirement plan, instead of below-poverty safety net.

[richardf8]

I don't know, it's a little superficial on the part of the Republican.

It's a bit of a reductio ad absurdum on both sides.

As for fixing social security, this is one of the few things for which I believe that there is a magic bullet. Adjust the salary cap for inflation, and the program's intake will be dramatically increased.

Of course that means raising the payroll tax on those making > 87,500 so it ain't gonna happen with THIS government.

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the superficiality on the part of the Dem. My main office is in a fairly poor minority neighborhood and I've stood in line at the corner convenience store behind a woman buying an armload of cheap dog food thinking to myself that there's no way this woman has a dog.

[richardf8]

All right, you caught me, I'm partisan; but you knew that. :)