Since everyone is focused on the election, there’s no point of producing a serious column on some weighty issue such as tax reform or spending caps.
Instead, let’s try to lighten the mood with some political humor – some of it going back 50 years.
We’ll start with two skits from Saturday Night Live. The first one is from 2016 and features some in-a-bubble white leftists dealing with the shock of Trump’s victory.
Younger readers may not know much about the 1988 presidential contest, but the Democrats nominated a dry leftist technocrat named Mike Dukakis (imagine a mix of Elizabeth Warren’s statism with Mitt Romney’s less-than-dynamic personality).
Well, he preemptively conceded the race.
What I found interesting is that the presumably left-leaning writers for the program acknowledged the huge success of Reaganomics at the end of the skit.
Speaking of Reagan, the end of this short clip features a clever line that the Gipper repeatedly used during the 1980 campaign.
For more examples of Reagan’s humor, watch the 4th and 8th videos in this collection.
Now let’s enjoy some libertarian-themed examples of election humor.
We’ll start with this meme from 2016, which matches my Tweedledee vs Tweedledum analysis.
Here’s an example for 2020.
Heck, that cartoon should be updated every four years since it’s an evergreen depiction of what it’s like to be a libertarian.
Now let’s travel all the way back to 1972 for a look at National Lampoon‘s famous Volkswagen advertisement for Ted Kennedy.
Last but not least, I can’t resist including something about today’s very important ballot initiative in Illinois.
The hypocritical governor wants voters to repeal the part of the state constitution that prohibits discriminatory tax rates (i.e., he wants to replace the flat tax with a so-called progressive tax).
Needless to say, once politicians get the power to tax one person at a higher rate, it’s just a matter of time before they tax everyone at a higher rate. Which is basically the message of this cartoon.
Which is why that referendum is at the top of the list when considering the most important ballot initiatives of 2020.
P.S. I imagine my friends who support a national sales tax, which they’ve labeled the “fair tax,” are very irked that Gov. Pritzker is using the same term for his awful proposal.
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