DC Trawler

Ed Asner patiently explains why California is a disaster

Font Size:

I guess I’m obliged to watch that California Federation of Teachers video everybody’s talking about, even though it’s nearly 8 minutes of Ed Asner talking.

Okay, let’s get this over with. Here’s Asner putting on his best Edward Everett Horton to warp the children of California:

Two things strike me about this cartoon: nuance and skill. Neither are evident. It’s straight-up leftist agitprop and proud of it. Rich people (other than Ed Asner) are bad, money is evil unless you’re taking it from those who earn it, we lived in a utopia before those rotten Republican fatcats came along, and we will again once they’re purged from society, etc.

Okay then. Let’s say everything Ed Asner just told us is true, and rich people (other than Ed Asner) are to blame for everybody else’s problems. They’re the reason California is falling apart. What better way to solve the problem than to drive them out of the state? With no more rich people (other than Ed Asner) keeping all the money for themselves, there’ll be more for everybody else. Everybody will have jobs, once the people who create jobs are run out of town on a rail. All the wonderful things paid for with taxes will come back, once you purge the taxpayers.

Sound good, California? Well, keep it up.

Everybody’s been focusing on the part of the cartoon where the rich guy (not Ed Asner) literally pees on the poor people. I don’t think it’s any dumber or more nonsensical than the rest of it, but it’s slightly more crude.

That’s the part everybody’s been yelling about, so at some point in the last 24 hours, writer/director Fred Glass “solved” the problem by freezing the animation at the 2:54 mark, right before the whizzing begins. (I’m sure this self-censorship is a case of right-wing intimidation and so forth.) But the Internet never forgets, and now we have the perfect image that everyone will think of when they hear the words “California,” “teachers,” and/or “union.”

Fun. Oh, and as long as we’re laughing at Ed Asner, here’s a great video of him rambling on about 9/11, lipsynched to his character from Up. Trutherism has rarely been cuter!

P.S. Lee Doren responds.

P.P.S. Asner follows up.

I’m guessing Asner is richer than that kid, and it’s been a few presidential administrations since he’s been able to pee on command, but whatever.