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mburnamfink's review
5.0
This collection covers the latter half of 2005-2009, with classic cartoons like "Jesus vs JEEZUS" and "Civil War II." Kreider is as acerbic and irreverent as always, wielding his pen in both cartoons and essays that chronicle the slow implosion of the Bush administration, the Left's affair with Candidate Obama, and the controversy over a Danish cartoonist's picture of Mohammed.
But the real treasure here is the closing essay, where Kreider reflects on how angry he was during the Bush administration, how shrill and irritating his political persona was, but how it was necessary to counter the endless parade of propaganda and baldfaced lies marching from the White House in the service of evil and incompetent policies. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the gang were low-grade profiteering thugs who looted the American dream and wrecked at least two foreign nations, and that they've escaped any punishment for their crimes will be one of the enduring shames of our times.* Kreider saw himself as the body politic's liver, and like the liver he absorbed a lot of toxins and took a lot of abuse. But because he (and the rest of the commentators on the Left) were paid a pittance, he could put it down and avoid becoming another Rush Limbaugh.
Kreider's political journey through the Bush administration paralleled my own, and while I miss his artistic/political voice today, I'm forever grateful to him for speaking truth to power in dark times, and letting me reminisce with him.
*and yes, President Obama is only slightly better.
But the real treasure here is the closing essay, where Kreider reflects on how angry he was during the Bush administration, how shrill and irritating his political persona was, but how it was necessary to counter the endless parade of propaganda and baldfaced lies marching from the White House in the service of evil and incompetent policies. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the rest of the gang were low-grade profiteering thugs who looted the American dream and wrecked at least two foreign nations, and that they've escaped any punishment for their crimes will be one of the enduring shames of our times.* Kreider saw himself as the body politic's liver, and like the liver he absorbed a lot of toxins and took a lot of abuse. But because he (and the rest of the commentators on the Left) were paid a pittance, he could put it down and avoid becoming another Rush Limbaugh.
Kreider's political journey through the Bush administration paralleled my own, and while I miss his artistic/political voice today, I'm forever grateful to him for speaking truth to power in dark times, and letting me reminisce with him.
*and yes, President Obama is only slightly better.
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