Censored and Political Cartoons
Category: Kitchen Sink...
Posted Friday, May 23, 2003 at 10:39 AM [GMT-6]

Yikes! Does Lileks know about this?

Speaking of cartoons, there's nothing like a good political cartoon to get your day off right, especially when that cartoon is from, say, 1884. The more things change, the more they stay the same. 120 years back, the Repubican presidential candidate, James Blaine, spoke at a fundraiser in NYC. Here's Harper's Weekly report:

"Blaine spoke on the topic of the Republican role in generating economic prosperity for New York City and the nation. Unfortunately for the candidate, it lent credence to Democratic claims that the Republicans cared only for the interests of the rich, not the working class, whom Blaine had been targeting with his emphasis on the protective tariff.

The cartoon depicts Blaine as the Babylonian king Belshazzar, for whom "the moving finger writ..." as described in the Bible (book of Daniel). Said king kicked the bucket that very evening.

Of course, Blaine ultimately lost the election to the scintillating and charismatic Grover Cleveland.

I suppose Oliver Stone could draw all kinds of meaningful parallels from this episode, but the moral of this story is, in my opinion...nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except to say that "biting" political commentary via cartoons is not a new phenomenon; just take a look at a few aimed at Abraham Lincoln, starting, perhaps, with this one.

And, by the way, isn't is wonderful that the Internet allows the preservation of and, more importantly, access to these sorts of historical and cultural documents?

[Link tip from Metafilter thread]