Page 121 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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SATIRISTS
POLITICAL
evision production. Defenders of the profession point out that even talented and
highly skilled politicians cannot be elected without the assistance of political
persuaders. But critics counter that political consultants have driven up the cost
of campaigns, giving wealthy or well-financed candidates and issue groups dis-
proportionate influence in the political process.
SOURCES: Dan Nimmo, The Political Persuaders: The Techniques of Modern Election
Campaigns, 1970; Dan Nimmo and Robert L. Savage, Candidates and Their Images:
Concepts, Methods, and Findings, 1976.
Kim A. Smith and Milena Karagyazova

POLITICAL SATIRISTS. Prior to the Civil War, much of the satire appearing
in U.S. newspapers and magazines was more social than political. Exceptions
included the work of Maine's Seba Smith, who satirized the Jackson adminis-
tration via his literary character Major Jack Downing (1833—years shown in
parentheses indicate the character's first appearance in book form), and in Bos-
ton, James Russell Lowell's Hosea Bigelow (1848) needled Manifest Destiny
and U.S. involvement in the Mexican War.
Civil War-era humorists who often satirized politics include the North's
Charles Farrar Browne, whose Artemus Ward (1862) went after copperheads,
bureaucrats, and draft dodgers, and Robert Henry Newell, who satirized the
Confederacy through his Orpheus C. Kerr (1862), a Lincoln administration of-
fice seeker. A contribution from Ohio was David Ross Locke's copperhead
character Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby (1864), who was the ignorant, loud-
mouthed Archie Bunker of his day. In the South, Charles Henry Smith satirized
the North via Georgia cracker Bill Arp (1866).
Both Chicago and national politics were satirized by Finley Peter Dunne's
literary character Mr. Dooley (1898), the spirit of whom was revived in the late
1950s by that city's formidable columnist Mike Royko. In like manner, Philan-
der Johnson began in 1906 to satirize Congress "from the inside" through his
Senator Sorghum, a technique Kansas City columnist Bill Vaughan revived in
the 1960s with his character Congressman Sludgepump.
The most popular political satirist in the 1920s and 1930s was the folksy Will
Rogers, and 1949 marked the start of the career of columnist Art Buchwald,
who is still writing and whose satire usually depends on purposeful exaggera-
tion. From 1951 to 1964, Fletcher Knebel's "Potomac Fever" column poked
fun at Washington politics, as does "Potomac Junction," written by Robert
Haught since 1989. Entertainer/columnist Mark Russell writes and sings songs
that satirize D.C. politicians—from 1961 to 1981 in Washington's Shoreham
Hotel and thereafter on television. He has also written a syndicated humor col-
umn since 1975. Calvin Trillion has combined political and social satire in both
newspapers and magazines since 1978. The "Bob Leavy's Washington" column
has appeared in the Washington Post since 1981, and talented newcomer James
Lileks has appeared in syndication since 1990.