Political Cartoon Analysis

Posted Wednesday, November 18, 2009 by Adil

As shown in the caption, this cartoon was created and posted in November of 2009. The significance of this is that it is the year after the election of Obama as President of the United States. The illustrator of this cartoon is an artist with her own blog. In her posting of this cartoon, she explains how political cartoons are "tools of democracy" and goes on to talk about the styles of political cartoons and effects that they have. This is very interesting to me because she gives away the secret of political cartoons which is something that people easily forget about as they view such rhetorical pieces of art. Because the audience is those involved in the recession, a big chunk of our country's population, the revelation to that secret plays no significance because so many can relate to the issue of "RECESSION." 

A sinking ship is the perfect metaphor that relates to our sinking economy caused by the recession. In this specific political cartoon, it is suggested that the cause of our recession is the various government leaders who only care about their own ideas. They are all caught up in being the "Captain" who is in charge. Some of the characters in this cartoon include Kucinich, H. Clinton, Obama, Romney, and G. W. Bush. These are all political figures who ran/are running for President, America's captaincy. Because the famous political figures are the only ones on the sinking ship, the illustrator reveals that their aggressiveness in becoming "Captain" is hurting themselves as well as the American people. The illustrator of this piece is a political cartoon artist who has many of these posted and obviously knows what she is doing and talking about. This is where ethos are established. Because people are so quick to blame others, the selfish government leaders accused of being the cause of our recession is a very logical idea to be supported by viewers (logos). To top off the rhetorical triangle, the pathos come into play through the emotional appeal of the viewers whose lives are deeply affected by this recession. 

I believe that this cartoon is very effective for readers. The recession is a rough subject for many Americans, and placing blame on the government is very common for people to do because of their frustration. With the techniques, styles, and creativeness; I believe that this political cartoon would serve as very persuasive in causing one to place the blame solely on the government.

Original Blog of Political Cartoon

Commentary Comments

Promise of an education

By LeBron James from the Akron Beacon Journal

LeBron James writes a commentary for the one year anniversary of the LeBron James Family Foundation in their set up of the Wheels for Education program. This is a program in the Akron Public Schools that encourages students beginning in third grade to make a promise to stay committed to school until graduation. Being someone that grew up in the shoes of these students, LeBron believes that this program will work, and I have to agree with him.

Knowing that they have supporters behind them, these students are likely to feel encouraged to stay in school during the times when they just want to give up. One of LeBron's best ways of encouraging these students is by wearing a bracelet that says "I PROMISE" to let them know that he promises to not let them down, on the court and off. The only thing that bothered me about the article was the fact that his closing paragraph was thanking the people of Akron for their support during the 2011 NBA Finals. This took the attention away from the kids and onto himself. Despite that minor blemish, I was touched by this article and felt that I needed to do something in the near future to help make a difference in other people's lives. 

ID for a better democracy

By Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom from the Los Angeles Times

The current condition states that a valid ID must be owned in order to vote. This commentary suggests that the required proof of identity should not be burdensome to get, and the process should be made as convenient as possible to obtain an ID. Because of the current laws making this such a difficult process, there are poor people that cannot afford IDs which is discriminatory, and I fully support that statement.

After reading the article and thinking about it, I asked myself why the less fortunate would have IDs if they maybe could not even afford to buy a car. The best argument stated in this commentary is that because of the need for photo ID laws to vote is a new voter suppression movement. The only reason as to why I would disagree with these authors is because this law prevents citizens from voting more than once at different voting stations. If the process to receive a photo ID was not so difficult, then this law would not be as irrational as it seems to the poor community.

Paul Ryan and the party of theory

By E.J. Dionne Jr. from the Washington Post

Paul Ryan has spent most of his life in or associated with government, but has never run a business himself. He is an ideologist and has almost entirely theoretical views of the big issues. He is either unaware or does not consider the impact his decisions have on the lives of the people he has never even met. For example, it is asked how Ryan can justify his Medicaid cuts when they would likely leave 14-19 million poor people without health care coverage. It appears now that the republican party is the party of theory and the democrats are the ones asking the tough and practical questions regarding the impact their decisions have on Americans. The roles of the parties today are reversed from those of the late 1960s and 1970s. 

The great points made the author has convinced me that there is a role reversal between the two political parties. I was captivated in this commentary, and now that I know more about the political parties, I have become more interested in wanting to know more about the republican presidential candidate and his vice. The best points made in this commentary persuaded the reading into siding with the democrats who are asking the more practical questions. I think that Americans are more likely to want to be ran by practical leaders instead of ones who do not keep the impact that decisions have on their country in mind. I can think what I want and so can the author of this commentary, but the decision is ultimately up to all of America. 

'Sikhs are not Muslims.' And what if they were?

By Scott C. Alexander from the Los Angeles Times

Right after the big shooting at one of the Sikh temples on Wisconsin, news media, including CNN went out of their way to make it clear to Americans that "Sikhs are not Muslims." This commentary is questioning the point of that message asking if the people in the temple were members, would the shooting have been justified? The author and I both agree that the answer to that is no. 

Right away after the questioning of the media's heading, I immediately wanted to keep reading the commentary. It should not matter what religion or race people are especially when they are members of our country. No such violence should be justified, and although it is difficult because of the tragedies of 9/11, no Arab Americans should be discriminated against because, Colin Powell said, "That's not American." I came across no confusion, and every point made in this commentary had significant meaning. Just like the incident involving the false intimations of Obama being a Muslim, it should not matter whether he is or not. This commentary is making a call to action for all Americans to take a stand similar to Powell's and send a message to all insisting that American Muslims should be thought of as a treasured part of who we are.

Science, such sweet mystery abounds

By David P. Barash from the Los Angeles Times

As a teacher, the author of this commentary teaches, writes, and lectures about what he knows to his students. The problem with this is that it gives the false impression that we know everything, when in reality we do not know everything about sciences in particular. Instead of doing what he has done as a teacher, he believes that we need to teach, write, and lecture about the areas of sciences that we do not know.

This commentary is something that I agree with and disagree with. The part that confuses me is that the importance of teaching the areas of science that we do know is not identified as important. I believe that it is extremely important for our students to learn about the areas that we are certain on being one hundred percent correct. Once a foundation of these things is formed, then teachers should start broadening their students horizons. This is where I agree with the author because the only way we can put more things into the category of what we know, the more the knowledge of humans expands. Once everything is learned inside the boundaries, then those boundaries can be removed from the sophisticated students filled with the knowledge that we know is true.

Analysis of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Being a story of success, Outliers is a book likely to attract readers seeking to live out the "American Dream" of a successful life. The synopsis on the bask side of the book was able to take hold of my interest by mentioning a logic that I did not even know existed. By suggesting that surroundings has something to do with a successful person's success and not just their intelligence and ambition, Gladwell could draw me into wanting to read more. Even if one is not interested in hockey, the Beatles, software programming, or any of the other topics in which people have found success in, the way Gladwell breaks down their successes is still interesting for the reader. The way that it is shown how all the stories are tied together gives the reader a reason as to why he/she is reading about the various examples.

After reading Outliers, my whole understanding of success has been proved wrong. The fact that the lives of Bill Gates and Bill Joy and many others have been broken down so much as to include the smallest details, I am aware of the opportunities and luck one must be faced with in order to achieve such an extreme level of success. My favorite example is the one about Joe Flom and the other lawyers that did not land a job in the top law firms because of their antecedents. They ended up taking all the cases that the big law firms did not want to deal with, which were the hostile takeover cases. Once those kind of cases became the big thing, the unwanted lawyers soon became the ones that everyone wanted, directing their law firms straight to the top. 

Some of the common themes that I noticed throughout this story included experiences, background, chance, and opportunity. Although intelligence is something that comes naturally, success does not. There is a series of things that must happen in order for it be occur, and the words just mentioned have a lot to do with it. The only question I kept coming back to throughout the period of time it took me to read this book, is how it is possible that the reasoning behind the successes Gladwell has found is the same for all of the other successful people in the world. The fact that I could not even convince myself to believe this at first makes the information in this book that much more amazing because Gladwell was able to change my mind by the end of the book. Overall I give this book five stars because due to the various examples of success broken down to explain the reasoning behind them, this has been the most interesting book I have ever read.

About Myself

My name is Marianne Dannemiller, and I am a junior taking AP Language and Composition at Archbishop Hoban High School.  I live in Wadsworth, Ohio with my dad, mom, older sister, and younger brother. Because I like to stay active, I am involved in volleyball, basketball, and softball as well as Yearbook, Student Ambassadors, and Knights for Life. What makes me unique is that I am one of the most indecisive people you will ever meet, I am obsessed with quotes, and my biggest peeve is when something is not done the correct way, and my biggest fear in life is failure.