Ellie Struewing, Pd. 1Obamacare

Adam Zyglis, April 1st, 2014, The Buffalo News

This cartoon depicts a doctor administering medicine to a patient. The doctor is

Obama, the patient is Obamacare, and the medicine is a delay. This is made clear

through the clipboard Obama is holding which says “delays” and “extensions” as

well as the medicine being portrayed as timers with liquid running through them.

The cartoon refers to the multiple delays and extensions of Obamacare

implementation. The medicine that Obamacare has is all running out implying that

several deadlines came and went yet Obama still gives it another one in order to

keep it “alive”. This cartoonist focuses on the flawed rollout of Obamacare.

Steve Sack, March 19, 2014, Star Tribune

This cartoon depicts an elephant representing the Republican Party and Obama

looking at a sign that reads “Obamacare Sign-Ups: 5 Million”. This cartoon is saying

that Republicans will argue that Obamacare was and is unsuccessful because

Obama’s goal for the number of people insured wasn’t met, but at the same time one

could argue that the Republicans didn’t have a better plan to solve the numbers of

people uninsured in the United States. It is also saying that while Obamacare has not

been totally successful yet, it did get something done because 5 million people is not

a small number and many more Americans now have health care than did before

Obamacare was implemented. This cartoonist, unlike many others when it comes to

Obamacare, doesn’t automatically disagree with it but instead provides a different

perspective.

Gary Varvel, February 20, 2014, Indianapolis Star

This cartoon depicts a donkey representing the Democratic Party getting a tattoo

that says “Obamacare” removed from its chest. There is a sign in the window that

says “Midterm Election Special”. The donkey looks like it is in extreme pain and this

could represent how many Democrats and Obamacare supporters feel after all of

the problems arose with the implementation of Obamacare. What seemed like such

a great idea a few months ago is now something that many Democrats want to

forget due to a number of reasons including the flawed rollout. Lots of people get

tattoos without really thinking about it and regret them later on and the cartoonist

could be implying that Obamacare seemed like a good idea at first but over time has

proven to be harder to make happen that the Democrats or Obama originally

thought. This cartoonist also portrays Obamacare in a bad light.

Nate Beeler, April 1, 2014, The Columbus Dispatch

This cartoon shows Obama punting a football through a field goal with flags on it

saying “Obamacare Sign-Ups” while the Democratic Party, represented by a donkey,

holds up the posts and carries a saw. The pieces of the pole on the ground and the

saw show that the donkey had cut of pieces of the field goal until it was quite short

and Obama could make the field goal. Obama is shouting “Homerun!” and looking

very happy. This cartoon represents how the number of people insured after

Obamacare did not meet the goal but that Democrats are still saying that

implementation of the act was a positive thing. It is basically saying that Obama

lowered his standards in order to make the number of people who actually signed

up seem like a success despite coming up short of his goal and even with the

setbacks, he will continue to support and project Obamacare in a positive way.

Pangli, April 22, 2014, ChinaDaily

This cartoon depicts a van labeled Obamacare driving down a road and behind it is

destruction and signs saying “no”. It is clear that the van has caused all of the chaos.

This cartoon is saying that Obamacare leaves a path of destruction wherever it goes

but Obama (who can be seen driving the van) insists on pursuing it. Whether is was

the glitch on healthcare.gov that wouldn’t allow people to sign up for coverage or

the deadline delays, many aspects of the implementation of Obamacare have gone

wrong. This doesn’t mean that on the whole it is a bad idea, but this cartoonist is

saying that a lot has gone wrong when it comes to Obamacare. In the lower left hand

corner, an elephant representing the Republican Party can be seen waving a sign

that says “no” and represents those who strongly oppose Obamacare. This

cartoonist, like many others, showcases the negatives of Obamacare.

Jeff Koterba, November 30, 2013, Omaha World Herold

This cartoon is about the glitch on healthcare.gov that was a major setback for the

implementation of Obamacare. In the cartoon, the boy makes a reference to the

issue when he says that a Santa wish list website was made by the same people that

designed healthcare,gov. This cartoon is a bit strange in the fact that the young kid

wanted to put his wish list online for Santa and knows what healthcare.gov is. In a

way, this cartoon not only addresses Obamacare and the website glitch, but the

increased us of technology by kids for things that they don’t really need it for. The

cartoonist might have used the Santa website because while (in the world of this

cartoon) kids would go to the website to hopefully sign up to get something, the goal

of people going to healthcare.gov would also be to sign up to get something. Once

again, the cartoonist presents a negative view of the topic.

Summary and Reflection

I’m not an expert when it comes to political cartoons, so when choosing a

topic I wanted to find something that was relevant and would make for good

political cartoons, but also that I knew enough about. After choosing Obamacare and

looking at a wide variety of political cartoons about it, there was one trend that

stood out. The trend was that Obamacare is extremely easy to make fun of. Out of all

of the cartoons that I looked at, barely any took a positive stance on it. The collection

of cartoons that I chose is not balanced at all and most of them have the same

scathing view of Obamacare. What I get from these cartoons is that Obamacare has

not been a success in the eyes of many people. Several of the cartoons showed the

Republican Party and how they felt about Obamacare and nearly every single one

had either Obama or a donkey which is understandable since the topic is

Obamacare. However negative these cartons may be, they don’t necessarily change

my prior views about Obamacare. I still generally support Obamacare, even though I

will admit that its rollout was disappointing. A few of the cartoons I actually found

genuinely funny, like the one by Nate Beeler, and others I found more thought

provoking, like the ones by Steve Sack and Jeff Koterba. I have always had a hard

time understanding political cartoons, but after analyzing them in class and then

doing this project, I feel that I have broadened my understanding and can

comprehend them better. While they still don’t particularly peak my interest, it is

nice to have a better understanding of them now. I feel as though this collection

represents a majority opinion because even if you do support Obamacare, there’s no

denying that some things went wrong and those things are what most of the

cartoons highlight. Overall, this project furthered my understanding of political

cartoons and it was helpful to focus on one specific topic in order to compare and

find similarities between the cartoons.