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November 13, 2006
Love Your President
By THOMAS HUDSON REEVE
In “Love Your President” the NoEvil team has made fun of the President of the United States. While most viewers have enjoyed or even cheered our effort, a few felt it was somehow unfair, and it is to their opinion I want to respond to here.
Satirizing, criticizing, and even being quite rude towards the powerful is an honorable tradition in the United States. In the words of Finley Peter Dunne, “Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” Otherwise known as sticking up for the little guy, but there is really more to it than that.
When a monarch proclaims that his rule over the people is legitimate because God has anointed him to run earthly affairs, to speak against the King is blasphemy.
In a democracy the people elect the Chief Executive, and his/her authority is derived from the consent of the people governed. Therefore we balance between the respect we feel for the Office of President, and the calling to task of the person we have entrusted with the job. He works for us, but we are supposed to follow him. He leads us, but only if it is where we want to go.
Lord Acton’s axiom that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” has become the most succinct expression of the underlying principle that justifies making fun of the powerful.
The equality of each citizen before the law means that the powerful do not have special rights, even if their job as special powers.
So when they become puffed up, we poke them with pins. When they get high and mighty, we knock them down a notch. When they get too comfortable, we take away the pillows. When they begin to believe they are better than everyone else, we beg to differ.
If they are smart enough to try to be a little humble by listening to the people, we are grateful and we honor them, but if they persist in arrogance then we will answer with our contempt – Not for the Office of the President, but for the individual’s misunderstanding of that Office and it’s power, and their obligation to us, the citizens, from whom their authority flows.
Posted by photocartoonist at November 13, 2006 2:21 AM