A Wednesday Politico cartoon mocking conservatives caught in Texas flooding was condemned by media outlets across the political spectrum.
“The first problem with the cartoon is its crassness,” Aaron Blake wrote in a thorough take-down at The Washington Post. “People are still being saved, and it’s making fun of those same people. The second problem is the stereotypes. It’s almost a caricature of what you’d expect a liberal cartoonist to draw in response to conservative Texans relying upon the government in their time of crisis.”
Created by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Matt Wuerker, the cartoon was tweeted by Politico’s Twitter account Wednesday afternoon, but deleted after Twitter users attacked it.
The cartoon depicted Texans being rescued by Coast Guard helicopters from a house with a billboard declaring “SECEDE” at the top, with one donning a Confederate T-shirt and a cowboy hat. The cartoon was complete with a Gadsden flag and a reference to being saved by God.
“We’ve done it. We’ve found the worst thing on the Internet this week, and it’s only Wednesday,” declared The Washington Examiner, referencing the political cartoon. The Examiner points out that despite the suggestions that Houston is “a hotbed of weirdo, backwoods secessionists,” 54 percent of the city voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
Wuerker didn’t issue an apology, but responded to the criticism, tweeting: “It’s actually very pro Coast Guard and doesn’t take away from all heroic private individuals who are also doing so many rescues.”
It's actually very pro Coast Guard and doesn't take away from all heroic private individuals who are also doing so many rescues
— Matt Wuerker (@wuerker) August 30, 2017
“There seems to be an attitude among some on the political left in America” writes Blake at The Post, that “if you don’t believe government should play a major role in something or increasing funding for something, you don’t believe in that thing.” The Post piece was scathing and direct, and should serve as a heads up to Politico that the cartoon’s callousness managed to shock even center-left media outlets.
“[T]he idea that a bunch of Confederate flag-T-shirt-wearing tea partyers in Texas are suddenly learning the error of their ways seems like a poor way to have a constructive dialogue” Blake continued.
As of the drafting of this article, the cartoon still remains on Politico’s website.\
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