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November 24, 2007
There Were TWO Press Releases Yesterday?
Whoa - wait a minute. What the heck just happened?
Yesterday, Winslow corrected Carmen that people on the left now want to be called progressives, not liberals. He handed her a press release stating as much. In the third panel, we see Carmen - who is now holding what I thought was the same press release, reading it for herself. In the last panel, she seems to correct Winslow, saying that the press release says that liberals want to be called puppies, not progressives. Am I the only one that thought that's what the strip was trying to say? Not so much that Winslow is so completely stupid that he mis-read the word "puppies" as "progressives" (although considering how dumbed down Stantis has made him that was an easy thing to believe), but that lefties were so desperate to avoid the term liberals that they would want something even Republicans couldn't make sound bad - puppies.
But now we get today's strip. Apparently Carmen came up with her own press release (wtf?) and that one says that conservatives are the ones that want to be called puppies. All together now: huh? There were two press releases in yesterday's strip? Carmen was carrying her own press release around and didn't tell Winslow first? Or maybe Stantis is pulling the old conservative tactic of blaming the other side of doing what they've done all along, as if the liberals all this time are really the ones that have been demonizing the word conservative. Um, no - people still proudly use that term to describe themselves on the right. Although they usually put the word "Reagan" in front of it.
"Republican," on the other hand, has become a dirty word mainly thanks to what the Republicans have done to this country over the last seven years.
I think back to back these might be the two worst strips written in the history of Prickly City. Not so much for their content, but how poorly they were written. I can't believe I'm the only person that thought yesterday's strip was a joke about how liberals now want to be called puppies. And today we find out that Carmen had her own press release and it's really conservatives that want that term for themselves? Does that make any sense?
As for the meat of the storyline, Stantis is of course making fun of liberals for wanting to be called something different. "Oh how silly you lefties are - if you want to change your name, then we can change ours too. Ha ha ha." Hey Stantis - why don't you call yourself what you really are: a Dixiecrat. You're a Southern conservative who claims not to be a Republican and not to be a Democrat. What's that you say? You don't want to be called a Dixiecrat because it's tied to racist policies? Hey, let's go back to your strips on illegal immigration and take a look at those again...I'm sure nobody would have considered the Mexican Winslow a racist stereotype...
These two strips hinge on one thing: Carmen's statement in the third panel of today's strip. "If you can change what people call you because it's a slur, so can we!" Again I'd like to point out that calling someone a conservative isn't considered a slur. Never really has been. "Liberal" has fallen that far thanks to what the Republican machine has done over the last few decades. As CJo pointed out yesterday folks like Rush and Ann Coulter say "liberal" like it's a dirty word, and the worst thing you can possibly call someone. Do people on the left say "conservative" like it's the most insulting thing possible? Nope. Now if you want to call someone on the right a "Bush Republican," that's a whole other story. I'm starting to use it as a substitute for MF'er.
I will admit the last panel is a valiant attempt at saving this strip (and obviously the punchline that Stantis was trying to build to by even starting this storyline). He has to admit that the Republicans are the ones that killed the SCHIP bill, something that as a "conservative" (I'm guessing that's what he is this week) is ashamed of. The whole "deny healthcare to the kids of working class families" thing - especially since it was originally passed by the Republican Congress under Clinton - is all about supporting the Bush Republicans at all costs, and even Stantis doesn't want to be associated with it. Oops, sorry Stantis, it's your party, it's your conservative movement, this is what you voted for and this is what you're getting. Don't try to run away from it now. Embrace it. Be proud of your "conservative" politics.
And don't sully the names of good puppies everywhere because you're a Bush Republican.
Comments
Not to defend Stantits, but read yesterday's 3rd panel again--Winslow refers to conservatives, and the girl corrects him--meaning that conservatives now want to be called puppies, since liberals changed their word. She doesn't correct his reading of the press release.
Posted by: FredN. at November 24, 2007 10:45 AM
That's my point though - you have to go back to yesterday's strip for clarification. Maybe I'm the only person who mis-read it, but as I read it yesterday I didn't think Carmen was referring to conservatives or had her own press release. Agreed that looking back it makes more sense, but that's not exactly the best way to write a comic strip that apppears in newspapers.
Posted by: The Furnace at November 24, 2007 10:57 AM
Never mind the writing. That smug little grin on Carmen's face in the first panel is triggering a serious hate-on in me. I want to reach into the comics page and smack that self-satisfied little git.
Posted by: Doc Sane at November 24, 2007 11:57 AM
