The Winds Of Political Lingo

I doubt that any Republicans turned liberal after yesterday, but I hope some are changing their thinking about who to support for President in 2024. This drawing above was published in The New Yorker in 1995. As hard as I try, I cannot recall what specifically was going on in May of that year that made me write this cartoon. It was the year of the Oklahoma City bombing, and the internet was privatized, among many other things. I do recall that my meaning had to do with how Democrats were again embracing the term “liberal,” for some reason. It is a word that has carried a lot of meaning, negative and positive— so much so, I feel as if it has lost its political reference. It’s funny how some New Yorker cartoons have meaning that, at the time, seemed so real and obvious, but fade from memory.

I don’t think yesterday will fade from memory in the slightest.