The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for June, 2024

Well, friends, we've come to the end of another month of blistering heat, not made any more bearable by the gusts of superheated air coming from one political rally or another. I just wish there was a way to harness all that energy in the service of something useful.

But I digress.

It's time to close out our Ass Clown Awards for the month ... and the choice is as difficult as ever. But the more I reflect on the choice, the more it seems to me that there's an obvious winner.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, today we present the award for

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for June, 2024

to - for the fourth time* - 

The American Electorate

At a time when most Americans don't seem to like either one of the leading candidates, it seems that all too many people are having a difficult time deciding whether to vote, much less who to vote for. I find this to be utterly incomprehensible, for as humorist David Sedaris put it in a meme that recently went viral ...  

American voters tend to have short memories that gloss over the bad parts of the past and focus on the ills of the present. 

They forget the years of inept leadership that diminished America's standing in the world, and the millions of our fellow citizens who died because of the mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. We clutch our pearls over President Biden's age while ignoring the fact that he is only three years older than his presumptive opponent. The media furrows its collective brow in concern when President Biden stutters or appears off his A Game, while ignoring the bizarre and nonsensical word salads, outright fabrications, and increasingly violent rhetoric of Der Furor. We fail to read and comprehend the import of Project 2025, which seeks to impose a rigidly conservative regime should the GOP win the upcoming election. We ignore the looming threat of government by a party intent on imposing a particular set of religious beliefs and values on all Americans. We diminish the importance of having a president with a documented record of delivering (or, at least, trying to deliver, however imperfectly) for all of our citizens, rather than one who is interested only in his own aggrandizement, the benefit of his wealthy supporters, and the admiration of his fellow autocrats.

To many who are weighing their votes today, quiet competence and decency in the service of all Americans are less important than bluster and buffoonery that play well to adoring crowds of the uninformed.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, it is with profound sadness that I present the tinfoil and toilet paper crown to the collective winner of the Left-Cheek Ass Clown Award for June, 2024 - the American Electorate ... which may or may not choose squander the nation's future come November. My fingers are crossed.

Have a good day and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday, when we visit the man who embodies "truth, justice, and the American Way" ... but is not, sadly, running for president. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* The three previous awards were: May, 2016 Right-Cheek; Ass Clown of the Year for 2016; and April, 2023 Left-Cheek.