Which Side Art You On?
By DeWitt Cheng
July 27, 2024
Which Side Are You On Biden as FDR in his wheelchair, in a less scrutinized era, with Trump hugging a Russian Flag and brandish one of the silver mylar phallus balloons that he released to taunt New York liberals. “Which Side Are You On” is the title of a 1930s Harlan County miners’ anthem, later popularized by Pete Seeger.
And God Created Trump The recent MAGA video, “And God Created Trump”, revealed the depths of nuttery embraced by the cult of suckers and losers. Trump’s fascistic, dehumanizing terms for his enemies, right out of the Hitler speech book on his bedside table; his selling of Trump Bibles along with the parade of absurd merchandise; and, finally, his criminal attempt to stage a coup to hang onto power all came together in this alt-history ‘alternative-facts’ view of a ‘modern’ Father of His Country. Just imagine Trump’s face superimposed over that of the real father of his country. No, wait, I’ve done that for you.
I Want Your Contact Info The replacement of James Montgomery Flagg’s Uncle Sam by the glowering Donald from his Fulton County, Georgia, mug shot — widely promoted in coffee mugs, etc. — provoked this image of naked extortion at gunpoint. Judge Merchan looks on at the antics of his snoring, malodorous defendant, which a modernized version of the Trump coat of arms, a toilet jammed with documents, exhorts its corporate killers to never surrender.
Lock-Her-Up Room Pep Talk The recent revelations that it was Melania who conceived of the ‘locker-room talk’ defense of Trump’s p-grabbing braggadocio, and that Trump fans were claiming that Real Men Wear Diapers while wearing adult diapers at rallies, fed into this image of the disgraced former president in stir, in stripes and Depends, posed like Watteau’s sad clown, Gilles, or to many a risen Christ, comforted by former incarcerated friends who were also treated “unfairly.”
Best, MAGA The image of an anonymous Trumpist wearing a Real-Men-Wear-Diapers sweatshirt demanded to be improved with the addition of the fun-loving countenance of Marjorie Taylor Greene and a posse of Jan6er patriots. MAGA is sending the U.S. its best as part of its swamp-building operation. It’s enough to drive one to incontinence.
Competition Improves The Breed While I supported Biden until the end as a good and competent president, I avoided watching him and Trump too much except in video excerpts online; it was just too painful. We as a nation seemed to have been condemned to repeat the same arduous, meaningless, and humiliating task over and over, like Sisyphus with his boulder. Trump’s obsession with sharks, first brought to public view by Stormy Daniels, reached a comic crescendo with his recent stated preference, “every single time,” for electrocution over execution à la Quint, from “Jaws,” or Captain Ahab, from “Moby-Dick.”
United Reich of America A video posted to Trump’s Truth Social a few months ago touted “the creation of a unified Reich” as one of the goals of a second term. It’s no surprise to anyone — except some of the blind, complacent mainstream media, addicted to sensational ad profits from the sensationalist entertainer — that 45 clearly models himself on “the greatest actor in Europe,” and that converting the country to meat and money would, in his sales lingo, “make [him] very happy.” “Let us prey” is borrowed from Thomas Nast’s editorial cartoon of corrupt politicians as hungry, sanctimonious vultures, and the current MAGA line extolling a return to Dubya’s “faith-based” politics.
