Note: This first appeared in the RightWisconsin Update for subscribers.
Our friend CJ Szafir, the Vice President of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), reminds us that the Capital Times’ Editor Emeritus Dave Zweifel heralded the election of Governor Tony Evers as a victory for civility. We’ve seen how seriously Evers treats the idea of civility, @#$%!.
Now we see what Zweifel considers civil. In an op-ed for the Capital Times, Zweifel accused WILL of attempting to suppress the vote by citing an example that had nothing to do with WILL’s lawsuit against the Wisconsin Election Commission, attacking WILL’s non-profit status, and for making his barber crabby. Zweifel, of course, did not cite the actual law involved in the case as it would’ve completely undermined his ranting.
If Zweifel didn’t have the status he does with the Cap Times, we strongly doubt that the poorly conceived op-ed would have been published.
But it was the cartoon that accompanied the op-ed that put the word vile in the middle of civility. (No, it doesn’t work perfectly, but you get the gist.) As we report on RightWisconsin, the cartoon depicted WILL President Rick Esenberg as a hangman with an array of nooses, implying that voters will be lynched. Given the history in this country of people actually being lynched over voter rights, this cartoon was beyond the pale.
Fortunately, even the Capital Times’ Opinion Editor Jessie Opoien thought so and the cartoon was pulled down last night. Unfortunately, Opoien was not sufficiently moved to prevent the cartoon from being published.
(RightWisconsin will not be posting the cartoon due to its inflammatory and offensive nature and the personal nature of the attack.)
In response to an inquiry by RightWisconsin, Opoien said the cartoons that accompany Zweifel’s op-ed are the result of collaboration between Zweifel and cartoonist Mike Konopacki.
If Zweifel really wants more civility in Wisconsin politics, he can start by making honest arguments and not using really offensive imagery to smear his ideological opponents. Zweifel and Konopacki can also publicly apologize for the cartoon.
