Liefeld and Larsen Debate Politics On Twitter
Twitter isn’t just a place to get the latest scoops in comic news, but it also allows a lifting of the veil to see a little into the creator’s personal lives and beliefs. Case in point is Erik Larsen’s and Rob Liefeld’s back and forth about politics that started Friday and really kicked up on Saturday. The discussion began when Liefeld commented on the Christmas Day Bombers plea of “not guilty.”
It was a perfect confluence on comic books and politics (the whole point of this blog) I suppose. Below is the back and forth, fun stuff (multiple tweets are combined, due to the 140 character limit. And and @’s are included, when not present assume they were not there).
Rob Liefeld (@robertliefeld) – Christmas Terrorist pleads “Not Guilty” Wow. Obama, nice move putting a terrorist in the criminal courts. Moron. No one is saying you should water board the guy, but guy tried to blow up 200 passengers on a U.S. inbound flight. Act of terrorism. Point is he shouldn’t be in a criminal justice system. Read the new Time and Newsweek, great articles on how the admin needs to WTFU. More jobs lost than expected. 1 year in and this admin is an absolute disaster. Worse yet, Republicans aren’t the answer. When will a legitimate 3rd party be realized?? The current system blows. It’s a terrible cycle.
Erik Larsen (@ErikJLarsen) – @robertliefeld what criminal pleads “guilty?” what jury’s going to believe him? Give him his day in court. He’ll be in jail soon enough.
Liefeld – Throwing an enemy combatant in the criminal courts and allowing him to clam up is ridiculous. You put explosives in your pants in order to blow up a plane. In the age we live, see ya, to the bottom of the pile with you. Their ’cause’? Their cause is to blow up infidels like me. Screw em. We shouldn’t worry about their “cause” A year of apologies changes zip. So in summary. Saw Daybreakers, loved it. Ate nachos with foxy wife, saw Youth In Revolt, loved it. Watched Lakers get hosed… Watched bomber say ” Not guilty”. Got pissed, argued with half tweeters, other half slapped high 5’s. Went to bed. You can’t fit me in a poltical box. I love God, but not a religious nut job. God is love. But I freakin’ hate the terrorist basterds!!!! Thought Obama was lesser of 2 evils. After 1 year he looks like a college coach with NO IDEA how to coach in the pro’s….NEXT…! Jay Leno on bomber pleading “Not Guilty” YOU HAD A BOMB IN YOUR UNDERPANTS!!!! Did u not know it was there?? 1 year of absolute control, apologists. All cards in his hand. What’s to show…? Job loss is awful, people scared, USA still disrespected. And BTW, I have never, ever cared what anyone outside the US thinks. As if the rest of the world doesn’t have a bone to pick w/the ‘bully”. Protect me, protect my family and loved one’s. Be smart, be aggressive with information. Connect the dots. Pay attention. 1 year should provide something. Anything. I had a friend who sold cabinets, he didn’t make em, he sold em. In 1 year, he had a boat, toy hauler, 2 motor bikes and mortgage… Dude BORROWED in order to make it all happen. Surprise, the piper came due, and he could not, lost boat, hauler, bikes and house… Why did the institutions make that available in the first place? Um, I could have told you it was way beyond his means Mr. Banker…duh? If you put someone in a crappy loan, help them work it out, give workable conditions so my friends can save their homes. Lots 2 do… My friend no longer sells cabinets because all the people who were buying cabinets were borrowing to do it. Moral of the story is that US of A allowed people with no business living beyond their means to live waay beyond. Country o strivers crashed. @makehavoc247 Don’t get me started on Pelosi’s bailouts…..ARGH!!!! Absolutely, my friend was a striving moron that got his own due. The bank should have said, uh…..no.
Larsen – If you’re ill-equipped to talk politics intelligently–please don’t. When Obama took office we faced a nearly unprecedented economic crisis.
Liefeld – Oh @ErikJLarsen I’m more than equipped to talk about politics intelligently. A democratic controlled congress eff’d up our country royally.
Larsen – That crisis was caused by 25 years of right wing economic policy. Everybody in there gets the blame–including Clinton for messing things up. The regulations protecting us against corporate abuses were dismantled and the middle class was systematically weakened. The GOP would like us to believe that Obama is a failure because it’s taking more than a year to fix what took a quarter century to create. There is, unfortunately, a lot of things at play including red dog democrats with right-wing agendas and political pressures of all kinds. Ultimately, the president’s power isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But it’s vastly more complex than the simplistic “he’s in there now and he should have made it better immediately” that some spout.
Liefeld – Democrats have controlled House and Senate since 2006. Democrats cast key votes to put the banks in control. Now they try to create distance. I’m an independent and will work hard to get the GOP and the liberal knobs running our country out on their butts. Anytime one wing, controls every branch of government and does jack-diddly-squat, they deserve the rep that they receive.
Larsen – It gets us into this cycle of the GOP screwing things up–the libs getting back in and getting blamed for it–and the GOP getting the nod. I’d agree if that party walked in lockstep, @robertliefeld –that’s not the democrats. as Will Rogers put it best: “I don’t belong to an organized political party – I’m a Democrat.” The Republicans have blocked everything and the Democratss need ALL 60 votes to move any legislation and that’s nearly impossible. Politics is a messy, messy business made messier by lobbyists and the need to constantly raise money for re-elections.
Liefeld – @augieshoots, when it comes to the economy, I’ve never been partisan. Whoever’s in control needs to get it to work. But also @augieshoots so much of the economy relies on captain’s of industry, many times outside of government influence. The internet boom of the late 90’s, technology in general…it drives so much of the consumer dollar. Not affected by gov’t but creativity. Job loss to foreign countries with kick-backs/ incentives will always haunt U.S. because vastly different societal labor laws and lifestyle. Had I not made so much cash in the 90’s and subsequently squandered it, I would have been like many honks and drained these banks 4 cash… .and crashed all the same. The lessons of the 90’s and striving were one’s I learned in my 20’s. If a bank says your 500k home is worth 800k. And same bank decides to give you a phantom loan for 300k that you aren’t really worth and can’t repay, and I sold cabinets..hard 2 resist. Did the government really need to tell the banks, Lehman Bros. etc. not to give money to people who can’t afford it. So many people went under due to creating overhead they could not afford. Happily approved by a bank that made sure it had plenty of loans.
Larsen – Yeah, @augieshoots and Congress is almost entirely bought and paid for. We’re one messed up country in a lot of ways. It’s a real problem finding a one-size-fits-all solution to problems with so many dimensions. At a certain point I’m just tempted to pull in my head and not think about it. Politics is too frustrating. Tough enough making comics work. @ErikJLarsen Lobbyist is a fancy name for bribery. (via @ozzie314) it’s not ever THAT fancy.
Larry Marder, who used to be Executive Director of Image Comics added;
For a taste of what meetings were like @Image in my day. See @robertliefeld @ErikJLarsen for the last hour. Then add 4 more guy’s. Crazy fun