Is Pathetisad a Word?

Every now and again you come upon something that is both unintentionally hilarious but also really sad at the same time. Case in point--this political cartoon, which was made for a local election in Oklahoma a few years ago for a candidate named Brent Rinehart. Rinehart, judging from the cartoon, is a die-hard Conservative Republican and apparently thinks the biggest problem facing Oklahoma County is rampant homosexuality. Apparently, Oklahoma has tons of gay people and only Brent Rinehart could stop them! I hope Mr. Rinehart doesn't take any sightseeing trips to the Castro District in San Francisco or New York's West Village--he'd go bonkers!

The cartoon itsels is pretty hilarious--the drawings of homosexuals make them look like Roman gods, and the "good ole boys" on the City Council have ridiculously large thumbs. Plus, the typos--oh, the many many typos! Why hire someone with a sixth grade education to proof-read when you can just assume the cartoon is good enough? Granted, the homespun nature of the cartoon was charming enough to get me to read it--unlike a lot of more flashy campaign literature--but the lack of attention to detail sends a message that I'm sure the candidate didn't want to send.

Now, on to this man's candidacy--I imagine that even if I opposed homosexuality (I favor it, since it leads to fewer unwanted children, less repression, and better home decoration) it wouldn't be enough of a big issue to occupy three quarters of a campaign brochure/comic. I mean, a county commissioner has to deal with things like fixing roads, making the schools work efficiently, utilities and property taxes. So some gay couples move into the area--is that really the sort of thing that makes even a traditionalist say "forget the fact that there's a sanitation workers' strike and tornadoes wiped out our power lines--we gotta stop this gay crap"? As it turns out, even the conservative voters didn't find the gays to be that big a deal--Rinehart came in last in the Republican primary.

While I hope his loss discourages gay-bashing in campaigns, I hope it doesn't prevent candidates from making amateurish cartoons to promote their candidacies--we need the unintentional laughter.