Below is the latest The Pain -- When Will It End?
Updated 05/09/01

Artist's Statement

"Compassionate Conservatism" is such a wimpy and transparent piece of P.R. that it's begging for parody--everyone knows that at its heart Conservatism is all about unashamed bigotry, callousness, and greed. I started thinking about this cartoon after seeing another cartoon in a left-wing magazine titled "Compassionate Conservatism" that showedd a bunch of fatassed businessmen feasting at a table and feeding scraps to some ravenous dogs who were labelled "The Other 99%." Left-wing political cartoons are famously didactic and unfunny. In trying to figure out why this on left
me cold, I decided it was because the cartoonist just wasn't mean enough. He's angry about the Republicans' new regime, but he doesn't hate them. He doesn't consider them personal enemies. I do; that's my advantage, my edge as
a cartoonist. As The Emperor once said, "Your hate has made you strong."

I was actually in Washington, D.C. on January 20th to protest ex-Governor Bush's "inauguration." It's not often that folks from opposite sides of the cultural divide in this country get the opportunity to line up and look each other in the eye. We hated each other's guts. I saw the worst people in the world there that day, the very people depicted in this cartoon.
Oh, yes: there really were women wearing ankle-length white fur coats with little gold-sequined purses. You could recognize the Republican ladies by their makeup even before they opened up their red laquered mouths and brayed,
"Hank? Ah'm raght hyar." [Actual quote.] Imagine: thousands of gussied-up Texas shitkickers clogging the streets of our capitol, trying to figure out the metro system, wondering what all these protesters were so riled up about
and why the police didn't just lock 'em all up already. At least the obscenely wealthy people in New York have taste, they read the right magazines and know the latest fashions; these were the tackiest people on Earth, the wrinkled-up prom queens of forty years ago from every cowtown in Texas with the oilmen and real estate barons they married right out of high school. And these are the same ignorant, bigoted, godfearing hicks who get to be in charge of our country again--or at least get to feel like they are. I memorized their faces that day, and vowed that one day I would use them
cruelly.