Election Humor 2021

 

While watching the reports of the election results Tuesday, I felt that political commentators on both sides were missing a very important reason for the Republican surge. Of course, dejected liberal pundits were hard pressed to come up with an explanation, but even the zealots on Fox news, who repeatedly recited a litany of unpopular progressive positions, missed the point. Democratic politicians and their media allies seemed to be totally lacking in a sense of humor. 

In Virginia the Democrats brought in all their big guns in support of Terry McAuliffe, and all seemed to be deadly serious, and totally lacking in humor. Despite his declining poll numbers, smiling President Biden appeared twice but who, even in the friendly media, pays attention to his boring speeches except to listen for the inevitable gaffes or failures of memory.

 

Vice President Kamela Harris appeared and gave her usual impression of a scolding school marm as she warned, in deadly seriousness, about the importance of the election for the 2022 and 2024 national elections. She predicted that as Virginia goes, so goes the nation. I suppose she will now go back into hiding but it would have been nice to hear her exhibit a little deprecatory humor while she ate crow after the Republican victory. 

 

The Democrats even brought in former President Obama, the most sanctimonious politician of all, from his multi-million-dollar sanctuary on Martha’s Vineyard. Does anyone outside of the inner sanctum of Democratic politicians pay any attention to Obama? Is it possible to listen to his teleprompter speeches? The McAuliffe campaign must have paid him a bundle to appear, but the money was obviously wasted. 

 

Worst of all was the Democratic candidate himself.  In his non-concession speech Terry McAuliffe was pathetic as he tried to cover up his impending defeat. There was no hint of humility or self-deprecation. His introduction of his family was embarrassing to watch, and his stupid little victory dance made him look like an unfunny clown.

 

Switching around the channels I found the same total sanctimony and seriousness among the panel on CNN, as well as in the demeanor of obviously disappointed Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Most pathetic of all was a clip of joyless Joy Reid when she exclaimed, in all earnestness, that the Republicans were very dangerous people. Wasn’t she aware that a couple of days before the election, Democratic supporters had staged a fake Republican white supremacist rally?

 

Where has political humor, especially satire, gone? Why have liberals, who once were the champions of political satire abandoned it? The opportunities for satire today are greater than ever. Consider, the following op-ed by Paul Levy that recently appeared in a Wall Street Journal about Biden’s position at the University of Pennsylvania, entitled “Professor Biden and His Ambassadors.” 

 

 

"Amy Gutmann, Penn’s president, awaits Senate confirmation as U.S. envoy to Germany, and David L. Cohen, until July chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees as ambassador to Canada. 

 

Ms. Gutmann isn’t a donor. Mr. Cohen and his wife, Rhonda, gave more than half a million dollars to Democratic campaigns and political causes between 2017 and 2020…

 

After Mr. Biden left the vice presidency in 2017, Penn created the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global engagement and appointed Mr. Biden to the bespoke position of Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor. Mr. Biden was paid personally for this job--$371,159 in 2017 and $540,484 in 2018 and early 2019 before launching his campaign,

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer… described Mr. Biden’s position as “a vaguely defined role that involved no regular classes and around a dozen public appearances on campus, mostly in big ticketed events.”

 

A letter writer in today’s WSJ quipped that the description seemed to fit Biden’s current position.

 

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Quote of the day: "Round up the usual suspects!" Claude Rains in Casablanca.