What better way to tell the story of a politician as overwrought as Michele Bachmann than as a comic book? After all, if a comic book writer had created Bachmann, she’d be hard to believe. Just a couple of months after Barack Obama’s inauguration (and his swath of guest appearances in comics), Bachmann declared that it was time for the people of the US to have an “orderly revolution” to throw Obama out of office.
Comic book publishers would be pretty bummed to see their cash cow thrown out, so it’s probably a good thing for the industry that Bachmann’s revolution seems to be on the back burner for the moment. But for those of you who want to be prepared in case she manages to pull it off, you could do worse than checking out False Witness! The Michele Bachmann story.
For those of you outside of Minnesota who don’t spend your evenings with Sean Hannity or Keith Olbermann, Bachmann is the representative from Minnesota’s 6th congressional district. Her latest claim to fame is a rather public refusal to fill out the 2010 census forms for nebulous reasons connected to “personal” information. Rather like Sarah Palin, Bachmann is a pretty, populist Christian conservative with a reputation for saying outlandish things and a spectacular ability to mobilize the “base.”
Issue number one of False Witness! is less the narrative of Michele Bachmann and more a story of the religious right’s rise, tied together with the rise of Bachmann. As such, it’s rather text-heavy, and contains contributions by several different artists. The art doesn’t so much tell the story as add to it, turning all the characters to outsize caricatures while telling stories drawn straight from the news (with a “citations” page in the back just in case you doubt). The creators are certainly aware of this–even throwing in a two-page spread in which the comic critiques itself so that you don’t have to–and notes that it is an “important political story.”
The book is worth the $4 cover price just for the page in which Bachmann chants “You Will Pay!” at a fellow Republican who doubted her, in panels growing ever closer to eyes glowing with lunacy and a forehead beaded with sweat (evoking Nixon’s famous debate sweats, perhaps?). Yet like many satires, it is aimed mainly at the converted, and probably won’t be picked up by anyone but those who already know who Bachmann is and find her frightening–or amusing. Though the creators do a good job of illustrating the schisms and splits in the Republican party, when it comes to specific claims of demagoguery or extremism, the book is at its most effective when it lets Bachmann’s own, documented words speak for themselves. Readers who don’t already agree that Bachmann is a fundamentalist extremist will probably never get anywhere near the comic, so I doubt it will have much effect on Bachmann’s popularity at home.
We are promised more issues after this first one, so I’m hopeful that we’ll get more narrative when the creators don’t need to cram years of history of the Republican party into their comic. Perhaps we’ll get some Michele Bachmann origin stories, some more tales of her time in the state senate, or, since unlike Palin she shows no signs of going away, more stories of her newest headline-grabbing antics. Or perhaps Bachmann will prove me wrong and turn out to be the biggest boon to comic retailers since Spider-Man met Obama.
Stranger things have happened.
July 6th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The most delicious irony in the latest Bachmann crazy-plot-to-take-back-America is the fact that if she and her “followers” in Minnesota actually refuse to fill out the census, then the corresponding under reporting of population will trigger redistricting (Minnesota might lose a seat in the House of Representatives), which, according to those in the know would most likely mean Bachmann’s own suburban district would get absorbed into another. In other words, in her bid to “take back America” from socialist dictators like Barack Obama who plan on putting Bachmann and her family in internment camps using census data (no, that’s not hyperbole, that’s what she thinks will happen), she might actually cost herself her own job. Not that she isn’t doing enough to cost herself her own job now anyway. She’s not looking like a shoe-in in the general 2010 election, and there’s talk she’d face stiff competition in the Republican primary as well. Keep talking, Michelle! Redistricting might also take place in other parts of the country as well, depending on how many people follow through with their threat. And since most of the people under reporting would be Republican, you’d see those “Republican districts” get absorbed into surrounding ones. The result? Less Republican representatives. Great plan, Michelle!
July 6th, 2009 at 10:15 am
Uh, she isn’t saying not to fill out the census, just not give personal information other than that you live there. So the census count would be accurate so there wouldn’t be redistricting due to her actions
July 6th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Allen,
She does not have the right to pick and choose. She can’t just “report” herself, her husband, and her kids and leave it at that. By law, she has to complete the census, answer everything truthfully, and return it in a timely manner. The consequences of not doing so is an incomplete census, with data that may be suspect at best and completely inaccurate at worst. The consequences for Bachmann is a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.
Census data is protected BY LAW from prying eyes for 70 years. Bachmann is worried about the census leading to internment camps because “a Democrat once put American citizens into internment camps 65 years ago.” To say she is paranoid/unstable is being kind. And there might be a real under reporting in the census by Republicans who think they are “sticking it to the government,” but in reality are cutting themselves down at the knees. A quick search after first hearing Bachmann’s statement led me to the FOX News message board, where THOUSANDS of people stated their support and their unwillingness to fill out the census. If even a small percentage of these people follow through, they will under report in their district (most rural districts are made up of a few thousand), which means their plan will be a colossal failure. Not since the Democratic Party of the 1980s or 90s has a political party been so willing to screw itself for years to come to stand up to an imagined political issue. Keep up the good work, Michelle.