"How do you function as a satirist when reality has become so ludicrous?"
Political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow posed this opening statement to a sizeable audience at the Woldman Theater in Norton Hall last Thursday night. In a visit sponsored by the University Union Activities Board, the cartoonist of "This Modern World" gave a lecture covering the possibility of war with Iraq, the 2000 election and how bleak his future as a political cartoonist currently appears.
Tomorrow did not have a clear response to his initial question. Showing samples of his cartoon, Tomorrow decided to let his work speak for itself.
"I don't know if I have any real answers to that," Tomorrow said. "I just get up in the morning and do my best."
As a syndicated cartoonist, Tomorrow's "best" is printed regularly in over 100 periodicals nationwide, such as The New Yorker, Spin, The Village Voice and Artvoice.
With ideas ranging from federal politics to the annoyance of car alarms, Tomorrow's view of American life is more than humorous. But in many cases, the clarity of his interpretations brings a certain amount of discomfort along with the laugh - especially now.
"These days make the Clinton impeachment look like we were holding hands and singing 'Kumbaya,'" said Tomorrow.
For example, in the fallout of the Sept. 11 tragedy, Tomorrow has encountered trouble getting his work published in periodicals such as the aforementioned New Yorker.
"I realized I reached my low point when I did a cartoon for the New Yorker about car alarms because I couldn't get anything political in anymore ... I mean I do hate car alarms, but it just didn't seem like the best use of my time."
According to Tomorrow, who spoke with The Spectrum prior to his show, he was raised in a politically charged environment. Before he adopted his professional nom de plume, Tomorrow was known as Daniel Perkins, a 6-year-old growing up during the height of the Vietnam War.
For Tomorrow, this was his main motivation to start drawing cartoons. The ideological disparity that existed between a college town like Iowa City and the political establishment during the 1960s left a strong imprint on Tomorrow's memory.
For these reasons, much of his work is strongly critical of the federal government. Tomorrow devoted a substantial portion of his lecture to bash both the Republican and Democratic conventions of 2000. He poked fun at politicians like Trent Lott, Dick Armey and Dianne Feinstein, as well as media moguls like Sam Donaldson.
In light of the current political climate, Tomorrow indicated that his recent work about Iraq feels like d?(c)j?Ae vu, or more appropriately, history repeating itself.
"It seems like I've done cartoons about Saddam Hussein for a long time because I have, I guess," he said. "And it's kind of strange now, it's a strange feeling that the work I did 12 years ago suddenly feels like it was written yesterday. And I don't mean a strange feeling in a good way, like your cell phone being set to vibrate and going off in your pants or something."
His lighter satire covered topics like trickery advertising and the media. In the lecture, he compiled a collection of advertisements from the 1950s that contained slogans such as, "More doctors smoke Camels," and phallic images of babies drinking from Coca-Cola bottles.
But even during the less grave moments in the lecture, Tomorrow's underlying message was serious. The cartoonist said that with each passing year, the level of sensitivity in this country becomes more and more extreme. Tomorrow criticized the anti-liberal bias of mainstream media, especially the pundits on television. He referred to conservative Fox News talking head Ann Coulter as an example of how, in his opinion, political discussion is becoming dangerously vociferous.
"She's the sort of slime ball who reaches the slippery slope of history," Tomorrow said. "This is how we get back into McCarthyism ... This is also a woman who said in an interview that the only problem she had with Tim McVeigh, really the regret she had with him, is that he didn't take out the New York Times building because of the liberal media. Me, the only regret I had with Timothy McVeigh is that he killed all those people!"
As a result of what he feels is a worsening climate for free political discussion, Tomorrow's prediction is that his career as a syndicated columnist will soon come to an end. "I don't think two years ago, anyone would have said I crossed the line ... I don't think I will survive in the next two years in the newspapers," he said. "I really don't."
But at the same time, Tomorrow reiterated that things aren't quite as bad as they seem, as long as he can work in an environment that - more often than not - allows him to express his viewpoints.
"I mean, you're still living your life," Tomorrow said. "Unless like there's mainly some terrible dramatic shift in this country and you're no longer in a democracy ... but barring some really politically extreme example, you just kind of live your life. I'm trying to keep the pressure on whatever way that you can."
