Political cartoons are dominated by the PC left. But an innovative new series is helping to change that.
Diversity Lane: A Liberal Family Saga is a conservative cartoon by professional artist Zack Rawsthorne. The series highlights the somewhat pathetic life of a suburban family all too comfortable in their “Stuff White People Like” liberal ways.
The characters of Diversity Lane drive the story. These cartoon-people feel quite real, and readers will see resemblances to some liberal friend, classmate or coworker.
Regular characters include Alex, the ponytailed ACLU lawyer with a heart of gold – but only if you’re a criminal. Allison is the politically correct wife always on the lookout for the latest multicultural trends. Devon is an angry leftist intellectual with no sense of humor or irony. Sierra is a middle-aged hippie who boarded the New Age bandwagon in the 1960s and never got off.
Amusing counterpoints to their hyper-liberalism are lovingly served up by Diversity, the conservative 8-year-old daughter. Quick-witted and sarcastic, she is never at a loss to undercut the ongoing madness in her family with a dose of sanity.
Rawsthorne started Diversity Lane in 2008 and he describes the series as “an Addams Family with a conservative slant but appreciated by anyone with a sense of humor.”
“I’ve long wanted to contribute what little I could to combating political correctness,” said Rawsthorne. “Living on the west coast, there is liberal madness at every turn so I also experienced an unhealthy build-up of tension that practically screamed for release. Diversity Lane is my release from the insanity of liberalism and hopefully it will help other conservatives.”
The ideas for the series come from current events and headlines but Rawsthorne has a larger goal in mind. “Humor is a great weapon and I want to get America laughing at the hard left.”
Rawsthrone says traffic to the Diversity Lane website www.diversitylane.com continues to grow as does his free email list of subscribers. Right now, the cartoon is only available online but the author has hired a publicist and is talking with two major syndicators about distributing it nationally to newspapers and magazines. A Diversity Lane coffee table book coming out this month should add to the popularity of the series.
Reaction from conservatives has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s obvious that Rawsthorne puts a lot of thought into the left/right dialog, and the series has been praised by Laura Ingraham and Brent Bozell among others. Diversity Lane cartoons have recently appeared on conservative websites like American Thinker and WorldNetDaily.
Liberal reaction has been mixed. Some write in to say they read Diversity Lane for a laugh, though they disagree with the political slant of the series. Other lefties don’t see the humor.
“I receive lots of snarling, negative email from liberals who seem to feel that only the left should be able to combine politics with irony and satire,” said Rawsthorne. “But when I get reactions like that I know I’ve created an effective cartoon.”
If laughter is indeed the best medicine for political correctness, liberals should fear the spread of Diversity Lane.
Joe Hatton is a freelance writer and consultant who lives in Maryland.
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