Grandpa Secedes
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I love being made fun of – a Mt Xpress cartoon from a few years ago depicting me as a squat dumb elephant arguing with a giant-headed Heath Shuler still hangs on the Henderson GOP office wall.
So at first I was happy to hear that I was the subject of some mockery in a cartoon this week except that no one here in Henderson County politics on either side of the aisle could figure out what the punchline was supposed to be… (and I can’t imagine any readers other than in Henderson that would even know who “Captain Danos” is supposed to be).
Everyone here that is news aware saw my articles on the “silver linings” in the most recent elections in the Tribune, Times-News and Lightning so they scratched their heads when the cartoon ran appearing to skewer something that didn’t exist. This was my article: http://www.thetribunepapers.com/2012/11/24/some-mighty-big-silver-linings/ and the much shorter T-N version: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20121113/ARTICLES/211131001?p=2&tc=pg
The character going off the “deep end” is going off the deep end because he is bragging about having taken Henderson County from Obama. The cartoon * side bar has to explain the joke by noting that “Grandpa never took back Henderson County, ‘cuz Obama never won it!”
The problem with that, if you read past the first sentence of my articles, is that I never suggested that we took back HC from Obama – or that he ever won it. No Democrat has won HC since ’76.
This is why your readers in HC on both the left and right, who do read the political news and articles, ask me “What is the joke supposed to be since you didn’t say anything like that?”.
I talk about Romney winning NC, talk about GOP wins in Governor races, etc… and GOP vote gains in county races for school board and judge but not a word about what you are talking about.
Even if it was about us being happy that at least we didn’t lose NC to Obama, that would make sense, but none of the rest does.
I’m not offended, don’t want an apology (no one thought it made sense anyway), or correction and I hope I am a target of cartoons again in the future. But do please try to make the target something related to an actual statement or occurrence so I don’t have to spend time explaining your work.
Robert Danos