It’s days like this one that I’m so glad I’m not a political cartoonist.
I’d have been tempted to draw a cartoon of two presidents–former President Barack Obama and current POTUS Joe “The Big Guy” Biden–kissing their own behinds with politicians and media applauding and Chicago bleeding from all the violence on the streets.
Obama broke ground on his gigantic Obama Temple of Adoration and Fealty on priceless lakefront land, with shovels wielded by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The temple is a monument to what clout can accomplish in this city of clout.
I don’t begrudge Obama his temple. He began his political career in Chicago, was America’s first Black president, a smart and cunning political strategist, a silky talker, not to mention he’s now a Netflix bigwig. Can’t the man have a nice place to visit when he flies in from his mansion in Martha’s Vineyard? It might be nice if they build him a reflecting pool so he can gaze at himself.
But I’d hoped he’d put his temple in a neighborhood like South Chicago, or in Englewood, a neighborhood that needs all the help it can get. But not on lakefront park land that was supposed to be kept forever open, clear and free.
And Biden had been scheduled in Chicago on Wednesday to heap praise upon his federal vaccine mandate. But at the last minute, “The Big Guy” cancelled his trip. This saddens me. I’ll have to erase him from the cartoon I can’t draw. And Illinois Democrats miss the chance to suck up to power.
“The Big Guy” doesn’t want to face questions about his poll numbers dropping with Black voters who don’t want to take the vaccine, or his son Hunter’s now-confirmed emails referencing “the Big Guy,” or what the generals said Tuesday about Americans left behind in Afghanistan, or the Biden lies about those alleged “whips” in the hands of U.S. Border Patrol officers, and many of the agents are Latinos. They don’t have “whips.” They use reins.
The Big Guy might want to answer those questions, angering the mysterious, unseen cabal he often refers to as “they,” who tell him what to do.
Better for him he stays home where its safe with the lid on. Sadly, Illinois politicians are denied the chance to bask in his light.
Either way, one POTUS publicity tour, or two, Chicago keeps bleeding. So far this month, there have been 89 people shot and killed, according to crime stats compiled by the crime website heyjackass.com
and almost 400 people were shot in September, including children, with Chicago headed for its highest homicide numbers since crack cocaine took over the streets in the mid-1990s. And carjackings continue and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is secure.
And none of the politicians are doing much about it. They talk and talk and spin numbers and talk some more and cozy up to each other since they’re all Democrats with elections to win. They bask in the reflected glories of the current and former POTUS. They get their photos taken with shovels in their hands and faces free of masks.
But like I said, such a cartoon would be “disrespectful,” perhaps “cynical” or even worse, “divisive.”
So, I’m glad I’m without artistic talent and didn’t draw the darn thing. And with Biden putting a lid on himself and skipping Chicago, c’mon man, what’s the point? So just do me a favor and erase my entire disrespectful word picture from your minds. Thanks.
But Obama was here. In a heartwarming speech before the ceremonial shovels came out and Pritzker and Lightfoot got their publicity photos, the former president said his temple would combat “a culture of cynicism” and the “politics of anger and resentment” and “tribalism, where might makes right.”
All these were components in his rise to power in Chicago. As the president, he all but ignored the city violence. But he did take good care of politics the Chicago Way, installing his White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel as mayor to replace the faltering and looney tunes former Mayor Richard M. Daley, and then taking mayoral brother Billy Daley on as his new chief of staff. Cynical? We need hope.
Obama and “Big Guy” Biden in Chicago would have been a great cartoon. Alas, ‘twas not to be
Forward!