Cartoons that shake Presidents

This will be hard to write: my subject is Doonesbury, the great American cartoon, written by Gary Trudeau, whose humour has enlivened political debate in the US for three decades or more with wit, charm, and savagery.  He has entered the political field as no other, being regularly banned by some states' newspapers and immediately reinstated under huge protest.  He gave readers cut out coupons to send to Tip O'Neill about corruption, and they sent them by the hundred mailbags.  His characters are charming, real, and wonderfully adapted to capture the moods, social and political, of America.

Trudeau/Doonesbury is one of the consciences of America, with a warm liberal tolerance that reassures you in the face of some of the narrow intolerance and ignorance that we sometimes hear from .. well, you know who we hear it from!  But how can I tell you about him, without showing you a few strips?  That would undoubtedly be anti-copyright, so I will send you to his website and the Wikipedia entry.  I will try a few pieces of text without the drawings, but they do lose a lot, although they are very text rich strips, as beautifully written as they are drawn. 

As an example, Senator Lacey Davenport is in Palm Beach, when her aide Willy Royce is stopped by the police.  He's black, and they assume he's a servant, who therefore has to carry ID (this is 1985!).  In the following strips, each of four panels, Royce talks to the police, and Lacey talks to her Palm Beach host, Consuela:

Strip 1: (first Royce and then the police)  Pass card?  Officer, this isn't Pretoria.  - No sir, its Palm Beach.  All hotel and domestic employees must carry IDs. - So?  That's their problem. - No sir, it's yours.  If you don't have ID, then I'll have to arrest you for loitering. - Loitering? How could I be loitering at 35 mph?  - I meant speeding.  If you'll get out of the vehicle, please, sir. - This is definitely because I'm black, isn't it?  No, sir, Hispanics are entitled to the same treatment.

Strip 2: (Lacey, then Consuela)  Well?  - I'm dreadfully sorry, dear, your Mr Royce didn't have an ID, so he was detained. - You mean arrested?  For what?  For being an undocumented black man? - Ordinarily, dear, it's a good system.  In fact, our employees love it.  It gives them a sense of security, of belonging.  The cards make them feel like members of our big Palm Beach family! - Are they?  - Don't be silly, dear.  It's just something they can show their friends.

Strip 3: (Lacey and Consuela again) Consuela, I hope you'll make my goodbyes for me. - Now, dear, I wouldn't make too much of this little incident.. We've really made great progress with the races recently.  Why, in 1979, we did away completely with an ordinance banning Negroes from owning property. - You did this in 1979? - That's right. - 114 years after the civil war?  - They seemed ready.

The storyline caused local outrage, and legislators moved quickly to overturn the law Trudeau was pillorying, a very typical Doonesbury outcome.  But he's often about social issues, or cultural ones, as well, and always worth reading.

And to end with, a few of the milestones identified in the Wikipedia article, most of which I recognise from hours reading and re-reading the strips in book form (I've left out some of the most controversial ones):

• During the Watergate scandal, one strip showed Mark on the radio with a “Watergate profile” of John Mitchell, declaring him “Guilty! Guilty, guilty, guilty!!” A number of newspapers removed the strip and one, The Washington Post, even ran an editorial criticizing the cartoon. Following Nixon's death in 1994, the strip was re-run with all the instances of the word "guilty" crossed out and replaced with "flawed," lampooning the media's apparent glossing-over of his image in the wake of his death.
• In February 1976, Andy Lippincott, a classmate of Joanie’s, told her that he was gay. Dozens of papers opted not to publish the storyline, with Miami Herald editor Larry Jinks saying, “We just decided we weren’t ready for homosexuality in a comic strip.”
• In November 1976, when the storyline included the blossoming romance of Rick Redfern and Joanie Caucus, four days of strips were devoted to a transition from one apartment to another, ending with a view of the two together in bed, marking the first time any nationally run comic strip portrayed premarital sex in this fashion. Again, the strip was removed from the comics pages of a number of newspapers.
• In June 1978, one strip included a coupon listing various politicians and dollar amounts allegedly taken from Korean lobbyists, to be clipped and glued to a postcard to be sent to the Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, resulting in an overflow of mail to the Speaker's office.
• In December 1992, Working Woman magazine named two characters (Joanie Caucus and Lacey Davenport) as role models for women.
• April 2004: On April 21, after nearly 34 years, readers finally saw BD’s head without some sort of helmet. In the same strip, it was revealed that he had lost a leg in the Iraq War. Later that month, after awakening and discovering his situation, BD exclaims “SON OF A BITCH!!!” The single strip was removed from many papers—including the Boston Globe. An image of BD with amputated leg also appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone that summer (issue 954).
• May 2004: two Sunday strips were published containing only the names of soldiers killed in the War in Iraq. Further such lists were printed in May 2005, May/June 2006 and 2007.

Comments

[Mr Cornflower]

I've always enjoyed Doonesbury too though his politics are not mine. But how is he reacting to internecine war in the Democratic party? Temperamentally he'd be inclined to the young, liberal Obama crowd I suppose but what about the hardscrabble, working class Pennsylvania element? Tough call!

[Jill]

Beautifully written piece! Was there any more damning indictment of what we do to young men in war than what happened to BD?

[JoyinBooks]

As an American, I am very proud of Doonesbury. Much prouder of Doonesbury than of the current administration.

[Peter the flautist]

I have always loved Doonesbury and all praise to The Guardian for introducing me to it and for continuing to syndicate it. If you would understand the US of America and particularly its politics then you have to read it daily.