TOW 6 - Shut Down Cartoon (Joe Heller)

Due to a discrepancy in Congress over ObamaCare, all government-run programs, sites, or jobs were shut down. As depicted with the sign, the cartoon illustrates how the nation is not only distraught but also embarrassed. The artist, Joe Heller, is a well-known political cartoonist who always appears knowledgeable on his pictures’ topics. Joe Heller is also a bully. Heller villainizes those responsible, Congress, in the eyes of the American people in an attempt to get the government to right their wrong, the shut down. For the most part, aware citizens already disagree with Congress’s action; this cartoon adds fervor to their patriotism. Mount Rushmore, a symbol of American pride, an imperishable icon for Americans, clearly recognizable by simple familiarity or the sign, is covered thanks to the government. In reality I’m sure the monument doesn’t actually have bags over the presidents’ heads, but Heller’s depiction is believable. The picture uses a logic that is sane to the country: Congress has already shut down so many government programs and sites, what’s one more to them? As if this event wasn’t already interpreted as an outrage, Heller uses personification with the monument to show how mortified the presidents are. Presidents, who created this country and were critical to the nation’s development, are ashamed of what it has become. If their attitudes were misinterpreted through their speech, then their eyes portray their angst, anxiety, frustration, and exasperation. It would take a lot for those presidents to become ashamed of their country, but this shut down did exactly that. In one sense, Heller’s goal is to convince the nation to feel the same sentiments as the presidents. In another, Heller wishes to use the American opinion to bully the government into reopening.

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