Bill Mauldin is best known for his work during World War 2 with the military newspaper “Stars and Stripes,” and his comic characters Willie and Joe. These two were long-suffering infantrymen, and Mauldin used them brilliantly to show just how a couple of regular guys adapted to the horrors of war by leaning on each other, engaging in some well-justified griping, and occasionally finding some humor in the whole mess. His comics were published after the war in a book called “Up Front.” What’s not as well known is that, after the war, Mauldin brought Willie and Joe home and had them re-adjusting to normal life. Mauldin also started dabbling in some political cartooning around this time as well, and those comics were published in a book aptly called “Back Home.”
Mauldin was, by the standards of his time, a liberal. That is to say, he was a 1946 American liberal in the style of Harry Truman and had no love for Communists. He also, in “Back Home,” poked fun at some wealthy American socialites who professed to favor socialism, writing (I’m going from memory) “There’s something very ironic about a leather-bound copy of Marx’s “Das Kapital,” laying on a chair next to a gold-fixtured swimming pool, being splashed occasionally by a drop of scented water.”
Now, I told you that story so I could tell you this one. Which brings me to Michelle Obama.
Mrs. Obama took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, ostensibly to sing the praises of another limousine liberal, Kamala Harris, but also to caution us that her family raised her to be “suspicious” of the wealthy.
Uh-huh.
The former first lady began her DNC speech on Tuesday by saying the last time she was in her hometown of Chicago was to memorialize her mother, the woman “who showed me the meaning of hard work and humility and decency” and “who set my moral compass high and showed me the power of my own voice.”
“She and my father didn’t aspire to be wealthy. In fact, they were suspicious of folks who took more than they needed,” Obama said. “They understood that it wasn’t enough for their kids to thrive if everyone else around us was drowning. So my mother volunteered at the local school.”
Yeah, right – but later in life, Michelle and Barack have sure as hell aspired to be wealthy, and as politicians do, generally by questionable means.
Here’s the delicious bit:
All the while, she was wearing a black pantsuit jacket that is available for pre-order online by the New York fashion designer Monse for $1,690.
The online description invites customers to “pre-order our Resort 2025 Criss Cross Jacket as seen on Michelle Obama at the DNC.”
Obama paired the jacket with matching trousers listed for $890.
Those there are some fancy duds, and that’s for sure and for certain.
See Related: Michelle Obama Calls on the Ancestors and Brings the Sister Vibe to the DNC
The New York Times Is Concerned That Kamala Harris Is Not Dressing Presidential Enough
Now, I don’t begrudge Michelle Obama those clothes, in and of themselves. I’m sure the Obamas can afford them; they can also afford, after all, no fewer than three mansions:
Says the person with these *three* houses https://t.co/CmVYE5Froo pic.twitter.com/3euNtz3ffF
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 21, 2024
Oh, and their Hawaii beachfront estate, which was just completed.
It’s not the clothes. It’s the hypocrisy. It’s the slamming of the “wealthy,” by whom Michelle Obama absolutely means Donald Trump, while she is wearing a nearly $3,000 suit. Her message, frankly, would have been more compelling had she been wearing jeans and a blouse from Walmart. But, let’s face it, that’s for the peasantry, who honestly, Michelle also is suspicious of.
And honestly, I just don’t get the whole “designer clothes” bit. For many years, I was in the jacket-and-tie corporate brigades, and because I go for quality rather than designer/expensive, I generally got my suits at places like Men’s Wearhouse – not horribly expensive, but good quality. Now, living as I do out in the woods in Alaska, I get my jeans, overalls, and shirts at Duluth Trading – again, not horribly expensive, but good quality. And everyone else is likewise free to do as they please.
Every cat its own rat, after all.
But this isn’t about the clothes. It’s about the hypocrisy. It’s about the tone-deaf attitude. It’s about the utter cluelessness and sad, obvious disconnect between the arrogant, elitist Michelle Obama and the regular run of the American public, who in real life Michelle would cross the street to avoid.
They say clothes make the man – or woman. In this case, the clothes make Michelle Obama a cynical manipulator and a hypocrite– nothing else but.
