Intro
During the Bush presidency era, there were a lot of events that occurred, like the banning of abortion aid, the attack on Iraq, the trillion dollar tax cut, the attack on the twin towers, terrorism scare, and the anthrax scare. All these events had a great impact on the world and America as a whole and one way that helped people cope with these events was a unique style of news called political cartoons. Political cartoons are editorial cartoons, which is a drawing containing a commentary expressing the artist’s opinion pertaining to an event that is currently happening in society.
An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. The question is how did political cartoons affect the Bush presidency era?
This is a significant topic because the Bush presidency was a very significant time in America, there were a lot of conflicts and great events that happened during that era. All the events that happened during the Bush presidency had great impacts and people that viewed political cartoons helped them cope with the events like during the banning of abortion aid women who wanted to abort their unborn child they couldn’t get financial aid to help them pay for the very expensive procedure, and had to pay for it themselves leading for some of them to go into debt and there was a slight increase in debt due to this action.
The topic fits into other research because all the information cited is about art is some way or another, and all the researched information pertains to war or tragedy in the world.
The reason the research fits so perfectly on the effect of art on society and the effect of society on art is that both art and society play a very important role in our emotions and how we react to them.
There are a few sources that describe how political cartoons affected society and vice versa, the miller center describes how the terrorist attack on September 11th affected the people of America and describes the severity of the attack in further detail
(The Miller Center) states from their research ”Terrorists hijack four commercial jets and crash them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania countryside. It is the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, with fatalities numbering about 3,000. Addressing the nation twelve hours after the attacks, President Bush vows to hunt down those responsible.”
[The Miller Center] The way political cartoons can affect the way the public feels about tragic events is by creating humorous drawings that make people feel like they have a little bit of stress lifted off their shoulders or have a lighter heart after viewing the image.
Laurence Grove wrote about how the depiction of images can alter ones emotion towards the main point of focus, he gave a specific example about an event in 1960 about a magazine company that focused around altering peoples emotions by looking at a visual image that represents something happening in the world.
[L. Grove] (Intellect Books)States from their book “Pilote had a competitor for adult readers in the form of the satirical magazine Hara-Kiri, founded in 1960 by editions of the square, in which bande designee co-existed with various other types of material.”
[L. Grove] The way a magazine company with a magazine that is filled with cartoons can alter one’s emotions is by focusing on an event that is happening in the world that can be heavily influential in the publics eyes and uses that influence as a coping method.
Attack on Iraq
In the early parts of the George W. Bush presidency America had attacked Iraq and declared war on them, Americans responded in two ways; either they agreed with the attack or they disagreed with it. That is where the political cartoons came in to lull the emotions. The attack on Iraq or more or less George W. Bush waging a war of Iraq was because of the imminent threat of Saddam Hussain’s weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorism. the airplanes attack Iraqi radar sites to enforce a “no-fly zone.” Bush calls the military action a “routine mission.” This was in fact not a routine mission, they were spying and they were plotting a war.
The result was a bad look for the U.S. Especially when Bush tried to cover it up by calling it a routine mission. This was like a two-way wall where George W. Bush thought no one could see what he was doing but all of America was on the other side where they could see everything. Political cartoons affected the attack on Iraq by showing the presidents true nature with a small amount of humor to keep the peoples spirits up. Though he attacked Iraq without a UN people still wanted to believe that he was the good guy and that he did the right thing, so political cartoon companies went ahead and made cartoons highlighting the good parts of President Bush and the good outcomes of America attacking Iraq.
G. B. Perry wrote a book about art affecting peoples emotions during and after a war. The reason this book is so important for this section is because when there is a war people need a coping method and art can be a way of helping. (I.B. Tauris) wrote, ”It is easy to see how in the collective memory the idea of clothing controls – rationing, the utility scheme, as well as austerity regulations – merge together into a more general
the concept of wartime shortages.” [G. B Perry] This justifies that people used clothes as well as art to cope with the destruction of post-war. The reason this is applicable in the present day is that even to this day people use art as coping mechanisms, whether it is a personal matter, a family tragedy, or a tragic event in the government.
Trillion dollar tax cut
During the first part of President Bush’s presidency, President Bush signs a $1.35 trillion tax cut into law. Although the amount falls short of the $1.60 trillion the administration has been seeking, the bill does slash income tax rates across the board and provides for the gradual elimination of the estate tax. Another thing added onto the tax cut is the estate tax. An estate tax is a tax put on the net value of the estate of a person who has died before distributing the contents to the said people in the will. When the estate tax was put in to effect in 2001, it had gradually decreased and was eliminated. In the beginning, people had a problem with it because they had argued that it was unethical to put a tax on someone’s life, but slowly, gradually the tax diminished into a minuscule piece, only affecting a person with specific net worth. Like in 2001 where the exemption for net worth was $675,00 and the tax rate was 60%, whereas in 2006 the exemption net worth was $2,000,000 and the tax rate dropped to 46%. This meant that potentially there would be a huge jackpot for the heirs to the people with ancestry funds.
Political cartoons affected the tax cut by stating that tax cuts were paid for itself by the rich and high society. His tax reform has been a significant change in our system. All of these topics have been depicted in some manner in political cartoons and have served as a basis for criticism. The tax cut affected many people in a positive way or in a negative way, and a way this can be helped is by the use of cartoons, specifically political cartoons.
In this text, it describes the use of political cartoons in the context of a political cartoon by “Bruce MacKinnon” which describes a scandal pertaining to George W. Bush (Yahoo News) says “A political cartoon by Halifax-based artist Bruce MacKinnon is headed for the United States Congressional Library’s archives, The Chronicle Herald reports.”[M. DeLaire] This can be compared to other controversies in the time of George W. Bush and the cartoons that are related to such events. The controversy cartoons are quite entertaining to look at despite the controversy because it allows you to find the best from the worst so the news isn’t always just depressing news.
September 11
The twin towers in New York City also known as the world trade center was attacked on September 11th in 2001 during George W. Bush’s presidency. Terrorists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania countryside. It is the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor, with fatalities numbering about 3,000. Addressing the nation twelve hours after the attacks, President Bush vows to hunt down those responsible. This event took a great toll on America as a whole and all suffered either mentally or spiritually. This sparked the fear of terrorism in America and that then sparked the divide in America called racism. Fear is a factor that played heavily in this event because the effect was to the public that to people in the vicinity or in the city or even in the country were in great shock due to the fact that something so public in that matter happened. The tragedy in that whole situation is that though there was a large terrorist attack on a major city in America the toll taken on the people was so great in two ways. The first way was the mental toll which affects us to this day with the quote “never forget” which represents the tragic attack of 9/11 and how the United States should always remember that we are a target but that shouldn’t let us be vulnerable but stay strong as one. The second way was the divide in America, the racism divide where people started stereotyping people of a certain color and thus created chaos in America, almost like a war with one side being attacked and not fighting back and the other attacking the other constantly.
The results of 9/11 on society were fear and distrust of the government.
Political cartoons helped the people cope with loss and tragedy with cartoons trying to make the best out of life at the moment. The media also reacted in many different ways to the war in Iraq. Movies such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 have used the war in Iraq to attack President Bush. The reason being is that some people blamed him and Iraqis wanted retribution for the bombing.
In this text, the library of congress which is a very reputable source talks about how political cartoons can affect the way people feel about things and how they can be viewed everywhere from newspapers to online newspapers to online periodicals and even websites. It talks about where to find them and how the cartoons can target different types of audiences and bring them together to view a cartoon that pertains to the current events happening. (The Library of Congress) says ”A political cartoon is a cartoon that makes a point about a political issue or event. You can find them in any daily newspaper, but they won’t be in the comics section. Instead, look on the editorial pages – they’re right next to the editorial columns, and across from the opinion essays.
You can also find them in newsmagazines and on political Websites” using political cartoons as an external source for news is a way to get a different crowd to know what is going on in the world. It says that the cartoons won’t be in the cartoons section but in the regular news section so people won’t get confused if it is news or a fun Sunday comic.[Library of Congress] This means that even though the news might seem boring and meaningless to most people, those “most people” will enjoy viewing the cartoons which give insight to current events and allows the people viewing t interpret the cartoons in their own way and feel however they are feeling.
