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February 21, 2006
"I think Stantis gets a lot of his facts wrong." - Mike Marshall
To misquote the immortal Whitesnake, "here we go again." *
Over the weekend I had a bit of a disagreement with good reader Charles over an incident in Scooter Stantis's past when it comes to quoting people. You would think after all of the hubbub over that Stantis and his editor would have learned. They haven't.
I'll get to the whole racism/sexism in the Republican party talked about in the comic in a moment. But for now I want to focus on what Stantis has Winslow say in the final panel of today's strip.
Winslow says, "Hillary says you want them back on the plantation." He is referring to Hillary Clinton's speech on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The them he is talking about are Rosa Parks and Betty Friedan - both major leaders in the fight for equal rights; one for minorities, the other for women's lib. The you is either a direct reference to Carmen or the conservatives - but they're one in the same.
This time Stantis and his editor do not include quotation marks. However the implication is obvious - unless these two are going to play the blame game again. Stantis is paraphrasing what Hillary said, and according to him Hillary said that the conservatives want Parks and Friedan back on the plantation.
There's one problem. Her plantation remark was in reference to how the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is run like a plantation. In other words, ONE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE OTHER.
There is no, "I was paraphrasing" or "That's what she meant" defense here. Stantis directly says that Hillary was talking about two civil rights leaders when she was doing nothing of the sort. If he wanted to go after Hillary for pandering to a largely African-American audience by using terminology from the days of slavery, fine - be my guest, she deserves it. But you are not allowed to take a quote out of context in order to provide a "punchline" for an unfunny comic strip. You're way out of bounds here, Stantis. Expect plenty of corrections this week from people who don't disagree with you over politics - they don't like you because you don't have your facts straight half the time.
Ahem.
Now, as for the rest of the strip, there really isn't much to say. Winslow's mad at Carmen and the Republicans for pretending to honor Parks and Friedan; Carmen comes to the defense of her party and says it's right to do so, and then offers a little tribute herself to Friedan and her battle for women's equality.
Ahh, but did you notice what Scotty did there? Today's strip is obviously about Friedan. Carmen doesn't say a thing about Rosa Parks. However, what the hell does a plantation have to do with a Jewish white woman from Peoria? That's right - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. But then Stantis can't use his plantation punchline, which I'm sure he's been dying to use. So he uses the memory of Rosa Parks to wedge in Hillary's remarks - even if they have absolutely nothing to do with what he's talking about in the first place (unless those two somehow are in charge of the Republican Congress).
Bravo, Mr. Stantis. "You give Republicanism a bad name," to misquote Bon Jovi.**
*The song title is actually, "Here I Go Again."
**The song title is actually, "You Give Love a Bad Name."
Comments
Hm, I was wondering what Winslow meant by "plantation" (this is what you get when you live in Japan and not have a decent American newspaper).
If the issue will be addressed in the podcast, I, or probably CJo, will let you know.
Of course, since I didn't know what the "plantation" thing was about, I had no idea what the strip was about.
Posted by: Charles Brubaker at February 21, 2006 08:59 AM
Carmen's lips are trying to escape in panel one. Run, lips! Run!
Posted by: Anonymous at February 21, 2006 11:26 AM
