(UPDATED to include comments from Dane Hicks with a link to his entire response of the criticism)
Kansas Democrats on Saturday condemned a cartoon published on a weekly newspaper’s Facebook page comparing Gov. Laura Kelly’s mask mandate to the Holocaust.
“Your ‘newspaper’ should be ashamed for publishing this piece of trash which is based on hatred, ignorance and the spread of evil,” Democratic state Rep. Jerry Stogsdill posted on the Facebook page of the Anderson County Review.
“Whoever approved this should have already emptied their desk and been sent packing. Hopefully, your advertisers will take notice and appropriate action,” Stogsdill posted.
The cartoon was posted on the Facebook page of the Anderson County Review, which is published by Dane Hicks, chairman of the Anderson County Republican Party.
Posted Friday, the photo shopped cartoon shows Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David.
The governor is next to a drawing of people being loaded onto box cars with the caption: “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask…and step onto the cattle car.”
Earlier this week, Hicks posted a picture of a mask on his personal Facebook page saying, “This mask is as useless as our governor.”
The governor called for the cartoon to be taken down right away.
“Mr. Hicks decision to publish anti-Semitic imagery is deeply offensive and he should remove it immediately,” the governor said in a statement.
“While it’s disappointing to see, on July 4th of all days, I know that Mr. Hicks views are not shared by the people of Anderson County nor Kansas as a whole.”
Hicks relayed a copy of answers he gave to questions from The Associated Press and were later posted on the newspaper’s Facebook site.
“Political editorial cartoons are gross over-caricatures designed to provoke debate and response – that’s why newspapers publish them,” he said in his statement.
“The topic here is the governmental overreach which has been the hallmark of Gov. Kelly’s administration,” he said.
“The most telling example of authoritarian government I can think of is Nazi Germany…,” he stated. “I certainly have more evidence of that kind of totalitarianism in Kelly’s actions…”
The Republican Party distanced itself from the cartoon.
“We think it’s an extremely inappropriate cartoon,” said Shannon Golden, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party.
News of the cartoon started circulating on social media early Saturday and started to snowball as the day wore on.
By late in the afternoon, the posting had 51 “likes,” 206 “angries” with 665 comments. It had been shared 172 times.
Late Saturday afternoon, the Kansas Democratic Party issued a statement, calling it an embarrassment to the state.
“Not only is Mr. Hicks’ graphic extremely offensive, nonsensical and out of touch with the values of hardworking Kansans, it endangers the public health of our entire state during an unprecedented global health crisis,” Democratic Party Executive Director Ben Meers said in a statement.
“Mr. Hicks’ recent post is a vile attempt to mislead Kansans and an embarrassment for our entire state,” Meers said.
“It has been extremely disappointing to see Republican leadership in Kansas politicize the current public health crisis to promote their own agenda.”
Rabbi Moti Rieber of Kansas Interfaith Action said using the Holocaust to make a political point was “odious.”
“Gov. Kelly’s actions are meant to save lives, while the cattle cars were a means to murder people,” Rieber said.
“This kind of hyperbole is the absurd end of the opposition to effective action against the virus which we’ve seen too much in this state and in the country.”
Hicks asked who he would apologize to for the cartoon. He referred to his critics on Facebook as “liberal Marxist parasites.”
“Facebook is a cesspool and I only participate to develop readership,” he wrote.
“I post much of my writing there and my trolls are like family. I like to refer to them as
my narcissistic flea circus – I make them jump and I give them free reign
to attack me for my views and only rebuke them for vulgar language.”
He added, “If there are holocaust survivors or their relatives or Jews who take
offense to the image, I would certainly apologize and I intended no slight
to them.
“But then again they better than anyone should appreciate the
harbingers of governmental overreach and the present but tender seedlings
of tyranny,” he said.
Hicks had been critical of Kelly for orders that restricted mass gatherings and movement to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
He said her order had the effect of “carpet bombing” the Kansas economy leading to projected budget deficits and thousands of lost jobs.
“Had Kelly the foresight to see past the need for government to seize the roll as sole protector of the populace, she might have judged the legitimate but measured health concerns in view of the more global damage to be done by such all-encompassing orders,” Hicks wrote on the newspaper’s blog on May 4.
“Her over-governance has hurt Kansas through the days of Covid-19, and will make a longer road back than need be.”
