I’d like to put my two cents in about the furor that has arisen over this week’s cover of The New Yorker.
For those who haven’t seen it, the cover shows Barack Obama and his wife in the Oval Office. Obama is dressed in Middle Eastern garb, while Michelle is dressed as a black militant - huge afro, her chest criss-crossed with ammunition. An American flag burns in the fireplace. A picture of Osama Bin Laden hangs prominently. They are doing an affectionate fist bump.
This obviously satirical cover has been the cause of much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth on the Left.
The New Yorker has essentially been accused of aiding and abetting the enemy. It has been said that while those in the know appreciate the joke, the great unwashed masses will have their prejudices about the Obamas confirmed, thus doing a great disservice to the country.
This got me to thinking about why people in Middle America hate liberals so much. (Anyone who thinks they don’t should note that Rush Limbaugh has 14 million listeners every week.)
One reason, I think, is because they think that liberals are humorless, that we think anything un-PC simply cannot be funny. Another reason is because they think we look down on them, that we are humorless snobs who look on "the flyover states" with disdain.
And I think they’re right.
An example - I was recently sent a letter by a man (whom I otherwise respect a great deal) who canceled a lifelong subscription to The New Yorker because of the cover. His letter included the words, "We in New York might enjoy irony, but the vast majority of the public doesn't get it.”
This is where we get into dangerous territory.
Simply put, is not The New Yorker's job to present Obama in a good light. Would he (and all the others who have canceled their subscriptions) have done so over a satirical picture of John McCain? We cannot have different standards of what is fair game for humor if we want what we say to be taken seriously.
A more sinister aspect of this has recently come to light. It seems that the The New Yorker reporter who has been following Obama and writing about him (in mostly glowing terms, I might add) was not invited to accompany him on his current trip to the Mideast. He was told that there simply wasn’t enough room. Given The New Yorker’s prestige and influence, this explanation is tough to swallow. It looks and feels a lot like payback.
Is this the fate of satire now? Any joke that makes fun of someone we admire, however clever, however obvious (the picture is entitled “The Politics of Fear”) gets censured by the Puritan Left? Aren’t we the ones who believe in a plurality of voices? Or is it just voices that tell us what we want to hear? Or who keep “sophisticated” jokes in the Coastal family where they won’t be misinterpreted?
This all reeks of elitism, my friends, an elitism that has cost the Left dearly in the last two elections. It will continue to cost us dearly if we don’t do something to rectify it. It will do a heck of a lot more damage than some cover of The New Yorker will, that’s for sure.
