While Harvey has brought out the best in most people, some persist in being slimy. We have had people yammering about climate change, suggesting that Texans brought it on themselves for voting for Trump, and even people who have gasped at Melania Trump’s choice of footwear. However, as the Washington Free Beacon reports, the lowest, most bigoted reaction has to be a cartoon published in Politico by leftist artist Matt Wuerker that mocks victims of the Harvey flood.
Cartoon depicts Harvey victims as Confederate loving, Christian rednecks
The cartoon in question depicts a man wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a Confederate t-shirt being lifted from his drowning house by a helicopter.
He is waving a Tea Party “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, and his house has a Texas flag sign that reads “Secede.” He cries out, “Angels! Sent by God!” A rescuer responds, “Er. Actually Coast Guard – sent by the government.”
What Wuerker gets wrong
Harris County, which resides in the middle of the Harvey strike zone, is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic community where a great variety of people live, not just stereotypical white, red necks. It is a business-friendly county but tends to vote Democrat in national elections. Hillary Clinton picked up 54 percent of the vote from Harris County, for example. Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, is an African-American Democrat. The congressional delegation includes conservatives such as John Culberson, but also liberals such as Sheila Jackson Lee.
About that secession sign
Wuerker seems to believe that an active secession movement exists in Texas. However, the slogan “secede” is considered more ironic than serious in the Lone Star State. If Wuerker knew anything outside of the narrow bubble where he seems to reside, the real secessionists reside in California where the Calexit movement is well on its way to getting a proposition on a state-wide ballot.
To be sure, many Texans of whatever political stripe tend to be religious. However, they have the grace to thank the Lord and their rescuers when their lives are saved from the floods.
What should happen to Wuerker
Wuerker is doing some backtracking on his Twitter feed, claiming that he is just celebrating rescuers and mocking secessionists and not all Texans.
This kind of weasel behavior is not sufficient for the putrid expression of hate that he has committed.
One hesitates to demand that someone who has drawn a hate cartoon has to be fired for his atrocity. The first amendment protects people of his ilk as well as those with a little more sense and sensitivity. However, Wuerker needs to show some contrition. He should be compelled to appear on Fox News to be rhetorically pummeled by either Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity and then made to issue a public, groveling apology. Wuerker should then be forced to offer a very generous donation to Harvey flood relief to show that his expression of shame has substance. Then, he needs to take a sabbatical somewhere far away to think about his bad decisions.
