BARK Redux:  A tree, particularly a smooth-skinned eucalyptus, is irresistible canvas for Kilroys, taggers, and occasional open-air artists. Today when I saw the tree with a life-size portrait of a lady carved into its skin, my impulse was not to like what had been done without permission from the keepers of trees in Balboa Park or from the tree... but I must admit that the drawing isn't bad.  I made a note to myself to come back next year to see if the eucalyptus tree's annual shedding of skin will get rid of the drawing.
 
My thinking wandered next off into wherever it is in my head that wisely-drawn cartoons get stored, and I found that wonderful bit of Walt Kelly wisdom about how we human beings, perhaps more than any other animal, sometimes foul our own nest.  My thinking turned back to the national elections earlier this month and then jumped forward to the the impending Republican majority in the House of Representatives.  I found myself wondering what kind of damage the Tea Party Express can do to recently enacted health care legislation and to the already hurting economy. I also wonder if President Obama will have enough moxie to get as tough in this difficult time as President Roosevelt did in 1944 when he moved to bring a corporate retail giant into compliance with government requirements and regulations.

The Background: During World War II, Montgomery Ward had contracts to supply the Allies with everything from tractors to clothing...items as necessary as bullets and ships. The contracts were a tremendous boost to company profits, but Montgomery Ward Chairman Sewell Avery refused to comply with collective bargaining agreements which were recognized and affirmed by the United States Government. After months of trying to get him to obey the law, President Roosevelt finally got fed up with Avery’s obstinacy and disrespect for U.S. Government, and he ordered the Secretary of War to seize Montgomery Ward plants and facilities. One of my favorite pictures of all time is one of Avery being carried out of his office by soldiers. It’s a reminder that none of us can consider ourselves above the law. And we, all of us, are the American people, the American nation.

Remember the Pogo wisdom: “We have seen the enemy, and it is us.” Walt Kelly, who died in 1973, was a Twentieth Century prophet. If he were drawing and writing today, he would have plenty to say about Americans who regard government as bad and want the freedom from government regulations to spoil our environment to make a profit.

If you went beyond tenth grade in school and regularly read newspapers and choose any evening news program but Fox, be aware that the Populist anger which surfed Tea Party proteges into Washington is aimed at you. You have become the enemy. To the Tea Party Express folks, sophistication (not a bad word except to people who don’t understand its meaning) is subversive and anti-american. Remember “nattering nabobs of negativism,” the most memorable phrase Republican Vice-President Spiro Agnew used to describe educated democrats. That was a couple of months before he resigned his office in disgrace after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges... a year before Richard Nixon, the president with whom he served, also had to resign in disgrace. Remember in 2007 when President Bush’s chief political strategist Karl Rove slammed Bush’s critics as “elite, effete snobs”? In the short term, the dumbing down strategy works well for politicians who need to impress ill-informed voters who suffer from a serious lack of sophistication in matters of politics and government. It worked in November 2010. But it will not ultimately win the hearts and minds of the American people.

I wonder how Walt Kelly would redraw his famous “Enemy Is us” cartoon if he were doing it today. The ecology theme of the original would still work today; but I can also imagine Pogo observing a Tea Party Express convention remarking, “Yep, Son, we have met the enemy and he is us.”