VOA标准英语--政治漫画演绎激烈的美国总统竞选

Political Cartoons Thrive in Heated US Presidential Campaign 政治漫画演绎激烈的美国总统竞选

Political cartoons have been around for hundreds of years. Matt Wuerker, a cartoonist for the multimedia¹ news organization Politico, said they can be very effective, helping² to point out hypocrisies³ and stupidities.

"If you can combine a funny image with maybe an insightful commentary about the political process, it's something people seem to enjoy," he said.

Art Soiree, an art exhibition organization, held its sixth annual political cartoon exhibit in Washington on February 19-20. Art Soiree's founder⁴, Sandro Kereselidze, said Washington is a city of politics.

"Combine politics and art, that's what you get," Kereselidze said of the cartoons.

More than 100 cartoons were on display at the exhibit, which drew a large crowd. Republican businessman Donald Trump⁵ was the subject of more illustrations than any other presidential candidate.

"Trump is actually possibly going to be the Republican nominee," said Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles. "That makes him the primary focus of attention."

Toles, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work, said that in political cartoons, irony⁶ and criticism go hand-in-hand.

"So if there is a political figure that you don't like, that's a very good subject for a political cartoon," he said.

Keep it simple

Toles said a good political cartoon should be simple — "simplicity⁷ of image, simplicity of message. ... It's the idea in a cartoon to take a lot of complicated ideas and boil them down, make it fast, make it clear, make it funny, if possible."

Visitor Matthew Clifford said he found the exhibit entertaining and useful.

"Having the opportunity to come together, get all sorts of people in the same room, and to be able to look at things that make us laugh together, things that will allow us to understand the humor inherent to the process, it's always going to be healthy," he said. "Hopefully, that can help us come to greater consensus⁸ on a number of issues."

In some countries, targeting political leaders in cartoons can land an artist in jail. Politico's Wuerker said the best thing about democracy and freedom of speech is being able to freely make fun of politicians who understand that it's part of the process.

"It's healthy when you can laugh at the leaders and leaders hopefully can laugh along, too," he said. "I can draw anything I want about the president of the United States, and he can’t throw me in jail. I can draw anything I want about Donald Trump, and all he can do is send some mean twitters about it.”

Wuerker said people should care about politics.

"People should also be a little lighthearted about it," he said. "It’s not Sunnis versus⁹ Shiites. We can all have a political argument, and at the end of the day we go forward as a country."

1 multimedia   

adj.多种手段的，多媒体的；n.多媒体

参考例句：

• Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology.多媒体是计算机和视频技术的结合。
• Adam raised the issue of multimedia applications and much useful discussion ensued.亚当提出了多媒体应用的问题，从而引发了许多有益的讨论。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 hypocrisies   

n.伪善，虚伪( hypocrisy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

4 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

7 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

8 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

9 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。