politicartoons | (no subject)

Here is the picture if you are too lazy to clickthrough:

Jeff - I get that you've got nothing to contribute but what your blogs tell you to contribute, but it'd be great if you didn't make this place a dumping ground for things you just found on PJ Media, RedState, TownHall, or whoever else is promoting this image. Honestly, I thought you had better taste in your blog diet.

I mean - setting aside the concern trolling - it's not exactly hard to find pro-Abbott images where his use of a wheelchair isn't exactly evident. It's a lazy, arguably insensitive 'shop (http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/17553/large/unequal_pay_piggybanks.jpg?1359573921), sure. So?

Oh, the guy's handicapped?

Cause w/o knowing that the ad seems totally normal.

Yes, he's paraplegic - which is something I hadn't known about him, until the OP sent me googling, and I'll bet most of the conservatives lambasting Progress Texas for the OP ad didn't know that, either, until PJ Media or Breitbart or RedState or The Daily Caller told them. Because that's what's really odd about this - this appears to have been something of an outrage pump in the Texas campaign for governor: "So-and-so (usually Wendy Davis or someone on her team) said such-and-such about Abbott's paraplegia and that's so offensive," etc. Most of the hits you'll get when you google something seemingly innocuous like, for instance, "Greg Abbott paraplegic," are comments and "stories" like that.

I mean, if Wendy Davis is openly trying to mock Abbott for his paraplegia, that's not cool, of course. But the conservative response seems a bit too orchestrated and too uniform for me to think that it's driven by a genuine interest in protecting the esteem of a minority group.

Also, you would think that depicting your opponent as paraplegic, even if he was, wouldn't be widely accepted anyway. People in wheel chairs are seen as less capable, putting hims standing up/walking implies he has more competence and gives more credence to him.

10 bucks if they had put him in a wheel chair the right would have been complaining because progress texas was "pointing it out unfairly, his paraplegia doesn't matter so why do those dirty libs have to keep bringing it up"

This would probably be less amusing if the left wasn't so consumed with identity politics.

This would probably be less amusing if you knew what identity politics was.

Congratulations, you just made this more amusing.

I'll bite. Jeff what is 'identity politics'?

Isn't "identity politics" what your sources are trying to do?

You mean he's not a good image for the "rich people should pay a more appropriate share of taxes unless they are handicapped " bill that Democrats are pushing?

I'm more concerned that a Heritage Foundation hack like Lachlan Markay is a fan of punk rock music, to be honest.
GG Allin doesn't deserve that.

HA!

To be fair, there is Xian punk rock. Of course it's completely awful, but it's out there:

I honestly don't see a problem with the pic. It was done with FDR all the time, so it's a standard convention.

"They did it almost a century ago" is not usually a good argument for doing something now.

Depicting your opponent as less capable is not really something that people take kindly too. Basically, people have unfair expectations on people in wheelchairs, by not depicting him in a wheel chair they're making him look better, portraying their opponent in a positive light.

Had they put him in a wheel chair the right would have complained about how progress texas was "unfairly pointing it out" and about how "being in a wheel chair doesn't stop him from doing the job why do you have to keep talking about it, what do you have against people in wheel chairs?"

I agree with

goumindong. There is still a huge bias in people against electing the obviously disabled. Showing him to be in a wheelchair would actually be more "dirty pool" than not.

You don't really have to ask anyway. Abbott is a Republican in a very red right-to-work state.

his head is pasted on yey?

I don't know who this guy is, but I do know they made his head too big for his body.