TOW # 22 "Political Rhetoric" (VT)

Does the United States government lie to its citizens? Are the American people susceptible to the trickery of politics? These questions, I believe, are what a particular cartoonist was trying to answer in his drawing, and he or she believes, yes. In this political cartoon the artist uses juxtaposition in order to show their audience that agendas from both republicans and democrats are being hidden in plan sight.

This political cartoon uses juxtaposition in its drawing. The first two things that are apparent in the drawing are the two political parties’ “mascots,” the republican elephant and the democratic donkey. However, the artist included within the two animals, guns, which make up the donkey’s face and the elephants trunk. This use of two seemingly unlike objects reveals a deeper side of American politics, one that the artist wants his or her audience to question. The use of guns within the cartoon symbolizes how politicians use rhetoric themselves to push questionable policies and laws by wrapping them up in something pretty and something that the public will understand. The guns also signify a specific example of an issue that the two political parties have been fighting over for many years now, stricter gun laws. The artist makes his or her audience question whether or not they are being told the whole truth, and if they are being persuaded to certain sides based not on facts, but pretty packaging.

I believe the artist effectively shows his or her audience how politicians on either side have hidden agendas that the public is not privy to. Using juxtaposition he or she shows their audience that our government can and does play tricks on us.