Customer Reviews

101 Things to Do With a Conservative

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a big Pat Oliphant fan. I have nearly every cartoon book he has ever published. (parenthetically to the reviewer who assumes Oliphant only goes after conservatives take a look at some of the stuff he did to Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter). Pat Oliphant remade political cartooning in America. Pre Oliphant political cartooning in the US was cliched symbols of Uncle Sam and tired homilies defending the American way of life.

Ok enough praise of Pat. This book has plenty of venom but no bite. It's not funny or particularly hard hitting. A good cartoon should prove its point, this one just uses a tired symbol in 101 different ways almost all equally boring, the only exception, the Jeanne Kirkpatrick allusion in one panel. For heaven's sake Pat, these guys are such easy targets it should be simple to come up with some decent cartoons instead of tired mildly risque word play like cork socker, or coke soaker. If you want to see somebody who does a good job skewering the rich and powerful in america, take a look at Tom Toles' work Your fans deserve better.

I wonder if the previous reviewer actually read the book, or got in a snit just over its title. Oliphant's next book should be "102 Things to Do With a Conservative". By the way, can conservatives do anything besides moralize themsevles into hopeless knots?

The title of this work indicates that Mr. Oliphant is suffering from a severe double-standard. Seeing that he has two (one for his friends - tolerance is good; and one for his enemies - "I will not tolerate a logical point of view and will denegrate the holders thereof"), one can hardly trust his bleary point of view. It is typical of a liberal to insist on a cordial discourse and then to slander his opponent.