Cool it, man! You had your chance!
It occurs to me that, while I’ve been absorbed in the presidential race, I haven’t posted anything about it. So meet Prez Rickard, first teenage President of the United States (well, sure they amended the Constitution first — do you think DC don’t know their civics?) Superpowers: Executive authority, veto, unarmed hand-to-hand combat.
His mom named him Prez hoping he’d be president some day. In gratitude, he made her vice president. Okay, I realize that last bit is pretty implausible. Hey, it’s a comic.
Prez made it to four issues, from 1973 to 1974, and made cameo appearances in several later comics. According to Wikipedia, he ultimately dies of a brain tumor “aggravated by the dishonesty of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.” You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at that one.
The comics never really figured out how to draw hippies, did they? They were always like Beatniks, but with kicky Florence Henderson style wigs. Way too much daddy-o and not enough groovy.
As I remember it, there was a bit of anxiety that stupid shit like this might happen after the 26th Amendment passed in 1971. The following election — and every election afterward — was going to be swung at the last minute by the “youth vote.” Heh. A “youth vote” that never materializes. The 18 to 24 demographic is consistently a no-show.
Stupid hippies.
Posted: January 14th, 2008 under art, personal, politics.
Comments: 20
Comments
Comment from Dawn
Time: January 14, 2008, 3:17 pm
I turned 18 in September 1992, just in time to vote in my first presidential election. I really made my vote count too. Ross Perot, you broke my heart! Gads, I was stupid.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: January 14, 2008, 4:04 pm
So that’s why we have a monarchy, here!
Comment from Lokki
Time: January 14, 2008, 4:06 pm
My first election was 1972. It was a historic time as it was the first time in history that 18 year-olds could vote and I didn’t want to miss it.
Unfortunately my choices were:
Richard Nixon, whom we all hated, even before watergate broke. To this day I don’t believe that removing Nixon was a political witch-hunt as some revisionists believe. He was dangerous to America and the Presidency.
George McGovern, A real liberal loser loony, whose vice presidental choice – we found out during the October Surprise® – had previously spent some time in a mental hospital, getting a couple of electric shock treatments. It was pretty hard to take the Dem’s very seriously even at age 18.
George Wallace The very poster-child of bigotry. Who could vote for an hateful bastard like that? ‘Nuff said about him.
So faced with those three choices, and a burning desire to participate in the American electoral process….
I wrote in the honorable Mickey Mouse. It seemed like the right thing to do. I suppose some election worker later cursed at the waste of a vote by “some dumb kid” but it was really a principled decision that led me to support Mr. Mouse.
Comment from Lokki
Time: January 14, 2008, 4:16 pm
Oh, and The comics never really figured out how to draw hippies, did they?,eh?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 14, 2008, 4:32 pm
Oh, d00d, that’s R. Crumb. Different kind of “comics” altogether.
I don’t remember the first election I voted in. It wasn’t the first I was eligible for, I can tell you. Go here for more bits of Prez.
Comment from porknbean
Time: January 14, 2008, 5:04 pm
By the time I was 18, I already was tuned in to the evils of affirmative action, quotas, and welfare mentality. If you wanted something, you had to work for it.
My first election, was voting in Reagan for his second term.
Comment from Lokki
Time: January 14, 2008, 7:16 pm
I am absolutely confident that Steamboat’s first vote was cast for Teddy Roosevelt, but there’s absoltely no guessing in which election he cast that vote. Could have been the last election. I mean, Bush, Kerry, Teddy Roosevelt? Hey! Which one would YOU choose?
Or more to the point which one do you see Steamboat choosing?
Comment from Lokki
Time: January 14, 2008, 7:17 pm
http://runningthroughrain.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/teddy-roosevelt.jpg
Theodore Roosevelt, dammit!
~!$!%$~$@% HTML…
Comment from porknbean
Time: January 14, 2008, 7:44 pm
Lokki,
I’m gonna say Lincoln.
Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: January 14, 2008, 9:52 pm
I turned 18 in 2000, four days after the election. Not that my vote would have made a difference in Texas, but I was still annoyed.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: January 15, 2008, 3:08 am
I remember the first election I voted in. I voted for Anne McIntosh, who won in a landslide. The party of the guy who came second went on to win in a landslide. I forget their leader’s name…Tony something.
Comment from porknbean
Time: January 15, 2008, 1:56 pm
Have you seen this Gibby?
The last testament of Flashman’s creator
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: January 15, 2008, 4:15 pm
Thanks for the link porknbean. I’ve never heard of Frasier before, but I’d echo his words.
I was watching a McCain rally yesterday (I still like him, despite what you naysayers say, for the reasons mentioned previously), and after his speech, a WW2 veteran got up and in his question referred to the Japanese as ‘Japs’ and my immediate reaction was, ‘Did he just say that?’ and then, after a moment I thought, ‘What the hell is wrong with calling somebody a Jap? That’s how they used to do it, and they’re our Greatest Generation.’ And then it dawned upon me: I’ve been conditioned to think in Politically Correct mode. Scary stuff.
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: January 15, 2008, 5:13 pm
That was a good call, porknbean – I read that article the day it came out and agreed with almost everything he said. I hadn’t realised his fame had spread across the pond 🙂
Comment from porknbean
Time: January 15, 2008, 7:33 pm
Gibby, don’t let ‘the perception’ fool you. McCain should not be running as a republican when he most often votes or cosponsors bills with the lefty dems. Here is a specific list of McCain’s record.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjUzOGY0ODA1YzBmNjFhOWE5NWU0OTY5NTZiOGNhOGQ=
I don’t think it is mentioned there but there is also the DREAM act that he was all over like flys on poop. Basically it was a back door amnesty for illegals through their children – in-state tuition, citizenship, green cards for their families. That amnesty bill was done behind closed doors with activist racist hispanic groups.
Comment from porknbean
Time: January 15, 2008, 7:38 pm
Uncle B – It has spread here because we also see our history and common culture getting lost down the memory hole. Truth and history is not taught because it doesn’t fit the agenda of the socialist swine. Apologies to swine.
Orwell is spinning.
Comment from Anonymous
Time: January 15, 2008, 8:36 pm
I’ve been in love with Flashman for a long time now. I first stumbled across him in our little library one rainy afternoon about 15 years ago. I don’t know if I’ve read all the Flashman books, but I’ve certainly tried. He’s exactly the kind of worthless and lazy, lucky, handsome bully that I’ve always dreamed of being.
But racist? God, I never thought of him as racist. You want RACIST?
By God, then you want Mr. Dooley:
“Hogan says th’ time has come f’r th’ subjick races iv th’ wurruld to rejooce us fair wans to their own complexion be batin’ us black and blue. Up to now ’twas: ‘Sam, ye black rascal, tow in thim eggs or I’ll throw ye in th’ fire. ‘Yassir,’ says Sam. ‘Comin’,’ he says. ‘Twas: ‘Wow Chow, while ye’er idly stewin’ me cuffs I’ll set fire to me unpaid bills.’ I wud feel repaid be a kick,’ says Wow Chow. ‘Twas: ‘Maharajah Sewar, swing th’ fan swifter or I’ll have to roll over f’r me dog whip.’ ‘Higgins Sahib,’ says Maharajah Sewar, ‘Higgins Sahib, beloved iv Gawd an’ Kipling, ye’er punishments ar-re th’ nourishment iv th’ faithful. My blood hath served thine f’r manny ginerations. At laste two. ‘Twas thine old man that blacked my father’s eye an’ sint my uncle up f’r eighty days. How will ye’er honor have th’ accursed swine’s flesh cooked f’r breakfast in th’ mornin’ when I’m through fannin’ ye?’
“But now, says Hogan, it’s all changed. Iver since th’ Rooshyans were starved out at Port Arthur and Portsmouth, th’ wurrad has passed around an’ ivry naygur fr’m lemon color to coal is bracin’ up. He says they have aven a system of tilly-graftin’ that bates ours be miles. They have no wires or poles or wathered stock but th’ population is so thick that whin they want to sind wurrud along th’ line all they have to do is f’r wan man to nudge another an’ something happens in Northern Chiny is known in Southern Indya befure sunset. And so it passed through th’ undherwurruld that th’ color line was not to be dhrawn anny more, an’ Hogan says that almost anny time he ixpicts to see a black face peerin’ through a window an’ in a few years I’ll be takin’ in laundhry in a basement instead iv occypyin’ me present impeeryal position, an’ ye’ll be settin’ in front iv ye’er cabin home playin’ on a banjo an’ watchin’ ye’er little pickahinnissies rollickin’ on th’ ground an’ wondhrn’ whin th’ lynchin’ party’ll arrive.
“That’s what Hogan says. I niver knew th’ subjick races had so much in thim befure. A few years ago I had no more thought iv Japan thin I have iv Dorgan’s cow. I admire Dorgan’s cow. It’s a pretty cow. I have often leaned on th’ fence an’ watched Dorgan milkin’ his cow. Sometimes I wondhered in a kind iv smoky way why as good an’ large a cow as that shud let a little man like Dorgan milk her. But if Dorgan’s cow shud stand up on her hind legs, kick over the bucket, chase Dorgan out iv th’ lot, put on a khaki unyform, grab hold of a Mauser rifle an’ begin shootin’ at me, I wudden’t be more surprised thin I am at th’ idee iv Japan bein’ wan iv th’ nations iv th’ wurruld. I don’t see what th’ subjick races got to kick about, Hinnissy. We’ve been awfully good to thim. We sint thim missionaries to teach thim th’ error iv their relligyon an’ nawthin’ cud be kinder thin that f’r there’s nawthin’ people like betther thin to be told that their parents are not be anny means where they thought they were but in a far more crowded an’ excitin’ locality.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: January 16, 2008, 11:00 am
Yeah, I know all about McCain’s foibles. But compared to the best the modern Conservative party, he looks almost Churchillian. Britain effectively doesn’t have a centre-right political party anymore, that’s why you can sort of – sort of – rationalise people getting interested in groups like the BNP.
Anyway, I love Orwell’s/Blair’s work as much as the next guy – ‘Keep the Aspidistra Flying’ and ‘Coming Up for Air’ most notably, oh and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ of course – but we shouldn’t forget that he was a committed Socialist despite his most famous booms being critical of Totalitarianism and Communism.
Comment from Gibby Haynes
Time: January 16, 2008, 11:03 am
Booms?
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