It is one of those curious nexes of thought, emotion, and reaction; try this proposition on for size:

American politics have achieved a new low.

So what? you might ask. Indeed, American politics have been in steady decline. Depending on who you ask, that slide might have started with the Bush administration, the right-wing response to the Clinton administration, the New Deal, Grover Cleveland, the Civil War, or even the American Revolution itself. Almost any way you cut it, the American political culture regularly sets new lows.

So big deal, right?

Okay, okay, how about this?

It's a local race from the American heartland.

Yawn, right? Despite the cyclical clamor to pander to "heartland values" or, as recent years have had it, "middle America", there is always something strange going on in those regions. Not that there isn't on the coasts, or in cosmopolitan centers around the country, but the heartland is hardly exempt from strangeness.

But there is something about this occasion. I'm unclear on this one:

How many candidates send comic books to voters?

http://slog.thestranger.com/files/2008/07/idiotOKcomic.jpg (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/not_ok)

It's hard to figure the greater conundrum about this. On the one hand, the comic is shit propaganda, lower than the usual hackery buzzing about during election seasons. To the other, though, it's a comic book. Now, it's not that comic books are without merit. Far from it. But to think that we've reached a point where a candidate is attempting to cajole voters with a comic book?

Perhaps it's a creative marketing concept, but it doesn't say much about the voters, does it? I mean, the angel and devil are hilarious, but as comic books go, that's some lame art.

John Estus reports, for NewsOK.com:

The "liberal good ol' boys," gays and Satan are doing everything they can to get Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart out of office, a comic book prepared by his re-election campaign claims.

The comic book, obtained Wednesday by The Oklahoman, is expected to be mailed to voters by Rinehart's campaign, Rinehart said.

"A drowning man tends to thrash about," state Attorney General Drew Edmondson, one of the targets in the book, said through a spokesman. "Nothing Rinehart says is worthy of comment or rebuttal."

Edmondson filed felony campaign finance charges against Rinehart last year, alleging Rinehart and his former campaign manager illegally funded the 2004 campaign for county commissioner. A trial has been scheduled for September.

Another of the book's targets, Sheriff John Whetsel, called it "extremely pathetic and very bigoted. I was taken back that in 2008, a candidate would use that type of inflammatory material and do it under the name of being a Christian" ....

.... Other prominent characters are an angel, who supports Rinehart, and Satan, who supports Rinehart's critics.

"It's more or less a story of my experiences of the last four years of being the county commissioner of District 2," Rinehart said.

(Estus (http://newsok.com/rineharts-comic-book-targets-foes/article/3271203/?tm=1216280078))

Maybe he can get Uwe Boll to direct the movie version.
____________________

Notes:

Image via Slog (http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/not_ok).

Download the entire comic book from NewsOK: http://downloads.newsok.com/documents/rinehartcartoon.pdf

Works Cited:

Estus, John. "Brent Rinehart's comic book targets foes". NewsOK.com. July 17, 2008. http://newsok.com/rineharts-comic-book-targets-foes/article/3271203/?tm=1216280078

See Also:

Constant, Paul. "Not OK". Slog. July 18, 2008. http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/not_ok

I'd like to think that Americans refuse to mold their political perceptions on the basis of shoddy, unartistic "comic books", but then again, it's always hazardous to overestimate the intelligence of the average American (no offense to you, Tiassa). Political "comic books" are useful for political purposes, in the sense that they're easy to read, entertaining, and unpredictable. Conversely, doing your homework on a certain candidate's/party's policies and standpoints is belaboring, time-consuming, and wholly uninteresting. You can't really enforce a ban on political "comic books", although there should be rules of one sort or another in place dedicated to filtering the ostensibly outrageous "comic books". At the end of the day, only somebody lacking severely in intelligence and common sense will vote for a candidate because a cartoon devil's stance on homosexuality. Of course, when the aforementioned cretins constitute the majority of your voting sphere, the genuine and sincere candidates are forced to partake in the ticky-tacky "comic book" wars.

Kadark the Diligent

The court jester has always had the greatest latitude of expression.

tiassa, this would breach the anti discrimination act here. Also there would be defimation suits coming out left right and center from something like this.

The court jester has always had the greatest latitude of expression.

I like that saying.

tiassa, this would breach the anti discrimination act here. Also there would be defamation suits coming out left right and center from something like this.

Pardon the reply: But is that supposed to be impressive?

The guy hates gays. A person can scream it from the hills, publish books and chant it on the radio. Though his speech was obviously negative towards gays, he wasn't outright calling for any harm. By your standard NOBODY could say anything negative about any group (deserving or not) without shuddering in fear of a lawsuit.

I tend to see freedom of speech as trumping some ethereal notion of abstaining from bruising gay people's feelings. There is no freedom from being insulted. I mean how petty can you get!? I'm gay, not a thin-skinned prude! People are tough until taught to be over-sensitive bitches, and if there needs to be a law to keep people from becoming simpering cry-babies then we might as well just punch out now and do the universe a big favor.

I believe in the iron-clad freedom of expression (even the mean kind) and I'd fight and die to ensure that that right exists, because I'm sure I'll be needing it myself one day. The "right" to say something doesn't really mean much if you sit around telling people that they can say whatever they want, so long as it agrees with your worldview. I believe the Nazi's perfected that notion.

The right way to fight bigotry is to acknowledge it and expose it for what it is.

This comic needs none of that: it speaks for itself plainly enough and does gay people far more justice than harm.

~String

Nothing new:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/impeach/Cartoon-Vote.jpg