A cartoon can be ironic or satirical. But when it preaches at us, and lies at the same time, it fails miserably. Take the Mayfield cartoon of April 2.
Referring to the recent congressional bailout bill that gave tens of millions of dollars to the middle class, working class, and the poor, and well over a trillion to large banks and corporations, Mr. Mayfield drew a picture of an elephant wearing a blindfold offering a mask to a donkey. The donkey holds a pork barrel that overflows with cash, and he’s saying, “Hey! Never let a crisis go to waste.”
Truth is that elephant had its eyes wide open and fought to give all the pork to its corporate puppeteers, and pennies to the small guys. The donkey, also controlled by corporations, was ready to throw in the towel. Only Bernie Sanders fought in the Senate for the 99 percent. He forced the elephant majority to offer a little more of the pie to Americans in greater need.
So, Mayfield did nothing to elucidate what had happened in Congress, and seriously muddied the waters with his jaundiced slant on politics. Don’t we see enough of that in the news already?
Gale McNeeley
Santa Maria
This article appears in Apr 23-30, 2020.