GOP official’s cartoon equates mask order to Holocaust
Gov. Laura Kelly has called on a Republican county chairman to remove a cartoon from his newspaper’s Facebook page that invokes the Holocaust to criticize her order requiring Kansans to wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The cartoon, posted on the Facebook page of The Anderson County Review, shows the state’s Democratic governor wearing a mask emblazoned with the Star of David against a backdrop of people being loaded onto a cattle car.
“Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car,” reads a caption on the cartoon, which was posted Friday, the same day an order by Kelly went into effect requiring Kansans to wear masks in public spaces and in places where social distancing is not possible.
The newspaper is owned by Dane Hicks, chairman of the Anderson County ReKansas Party. Hicks defended the cartoon, which he said he had made himself and planned to publish Tuesday.
“Political editorial cartoons are gross over-caricatures designed to provoke debate and response — that’s why newspapers publish them — fodder for the marketplace of ideas,” he wrote in an email. “The topic here is the governmental overreach which has been the hallmark of Governor Kelly’s administration.”
He scoffed at the idea of an apology.
“Apologies: To whom exactly?” he wrote. “The critics on the Facebook page? Facebook is a cesspool and I only participate to develop readership.”
He added that he “intended no slight” to Jews or Holocaust survivors.
The Kansas Democratic Party also denounced the cartoon.
“Mr. Hicks’ recent post is a vile attempt to mislead Kansans and an embarrassment for our entire state,” the party’s executive direcpublican tor, Ben Meers, said in a statement.
The Kansas Republican Party and its chairman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Masks have become, for some, a divisive cultural flashpoint, despite evidence that they are a simple and effective way to help prevent the transmission of the virus. Particularly on the right, the decision not to wear a mask has become a rebellion against what some regard as an incursion on personal liberty.