Political Irony

© Ed Stein

From the cartoonist:

I had some qualms about drawing this one. I toyed with a number of Thanksgiving themes–the president pardoning the turkey, the Thanksgiving feast, both contemporary and historical, linking these images with other events like the Afghanistan decision or Wall Street bonuses–but I decided against them. Too predictable or too familiar. I ended up doing this one, mostly because even though it’s a downer, it’s closer to what I think is the underlying truth about the time we’re in right now. Over the past few decades we’ve squandered much of our wealth and our economic security, and I don’t think we’ll be going back to what we had anytime soon. Wall Street greed is only partly to blame. We built an economy on cheap imported consumer goods, and watched passively as manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas, salaries retreated, and the middle class stagnated while the wealthiest piled up unprecedented riches. As the bitter partisan divide became an unbridgeable chasm, we kicked difficult choices like Medicare, Social Security and health care reform down the road. And here we are, with a shattered economy, a fragile recovery leaving huge unemployment in its wake, and a holiday season upon us that promises little cheer for retailers or consumers. Happy Thanksgiving.