By now, I dearly hope, you haven't made a beeline to your nearest magazine vendor (save it for tomorrow, Tuesday, when the magazine shows up on a rather limited number of newsstands). Maybe you can ask a friend or relative in the New York City area to get a copy for you.
I know you will want to savor the cover on the July 21, 2008 issue. Maybe you will pass it around among your friends and chuckle over your fantasies made into art. Maybe you can find a way to lift the thumbnail photo off the magazine's Web site:
http://www.newyorker.com/...
Actually, I would encourage you to frame the real cover – put it up on your wall where you can save it for posterity.
There it is: Obama in what you conceive of as Muslim garb (love the sandals!) in a "terrorist fist bump" (as described by Fox News) with an Angela-Davis-ed Michelle (cherish the AK-47, the bullets and the combat boots!). Now don't miss the flag burning in the fireplace, the hint of the Osama bin Laden portrait, and the caricatures of the faces. We'll let you revel in the details.
Is that the Oval Office? Yep.
Now, savor it.
Truth underlying a cartoon? Is it a joke?
Well, let's call it commentary. But can you really believe your eyes – what you are seeing in this cover?
You may want to pause for a moment and consider the title of this bit of commentary:
The Politics of Fear
Let me spell it out for you.
The artist took your fantasies (Obama is a Muslim) and fears (Obama's a black man; Michelle is black and angry) and racism to portray what you fear most of all: the Obamas in the White House.
The joke's on you, Freepers.
You are the ones being ridiculed. Skewered. You and your fears are as absurd as this political cartoon.
So, I hope you buy a copy of this issue and memorialize it.
Frame it; put it up on your wall.
It's all about you and your absurd smear campaign.