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Questions
1. To what news item does this cartoon refer?
2. Define the idiom “make light of”
3. Editorial cartoonists often use humor to make light of serious situations. What serious concern regarding the presidential election does cartoonist Lisa Benson make light of in her cartoon?
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.
Cartoon by Lisa Benson
Answers
1. Both the Trump and Biden campaigns have hired lawyers to address potential issue of a “stolen election” – with Trump saying Democrats are attempting to commit voter fraud and Biden saying Republicans are attempting to cause voter disenfranchisement.
2. To make light of: to act as if something is not serious or important (from thefreedictionary .com)
3. The issue of having to hire so many lawyers after the election.
- In June, Joe Biden announced that his campaign had hired 600 lawyers because his “single greatest concern” is that “this president [Trump] is going to try to steal this election.” The media also appears convinced that should President Trump lose fairly, he would refuse to leave office.
- The Trump campaign has hired lawyers to address the possibility of widespread voter fraud and/or problems with large-scale mail in ballots, especially in battleground states. Trump supporters have expressed concern that the use of mail-in voting – especially in the states where every voter is mailed a ballot without requesting one and also in states that have extended the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots by several days to even 2 weeks after the election – will lead to widespread voter fraud.
