The many masks of Carly Fiorina

When browsing different satirical representations of Carly, unfortunately other than her extreme disgust with SNL’s skit of Sarah Palin, Carly was not featured in any Comedy Central episodes. Mainly, I found a lot of political cartoons bashing Carly; this one particularly featured in this blog was my favorite. Although I agree with most of Carly’s issue stances, the comical approach to the creation of this cartoon left me doing more and more research not only on Carly but California Senator Pete Wilson. Keep in mind Carly’s campaign happened in 2010 against Barbara Boxer, so most of the material I found was over four years old.

 

In this political cartoon Carly is shown trying to regain the attention of the Latino community, but they seem to be running away from her. The comedy comes into play once the next frame is presented and Carly is shown wearing a Pete Wilson mask that she was using as a Mexican wrestling mask. Also featured in this frame is Carly’s bold choice of pins, the “AZ Bill 1070” which at the time was the strictest anti-illegal immigration law in effect. Also, the pin “CA Prop 187” which in the 90s was put into effect in order for individual state to govern people’s citizenship, preventing illegal immigrants to be excluded from receiving health care, public education, etc. This all means that the Latino community anticipated the same type of governing as Pete Wilson was going to be done.

            Although this cartoon is an opinion piece, it still has a lot to say about Carly Fiorina’s political image. Being from the Republican Party, Carly tends to have stronger, conservative views and opinions. Although Carly expresses the desire to address many communities in her campaign, she stays true to the laws adopted early in our constitution in regards to conservative opinions. Carly is also a firm believer in maximizing America’s full potential when it comes to creating jobs. Without passing, what some refer to as “harsh,” propositions and bills, America would not be able to reach its employment goal with illegal immigrants taking them.

 

              The only detriment I find in this political cartoon would be the diminution of attraction in the Latino community to vote for Carly. Following close in Pete Wilson’s footsteps regarding issue stance, Carly may not add up to be the most popular candidate among immigrants. This begins to take away from the image Carly and her team originally tried to put forth in the media, which was, to be able to reach women and people not technologically inclined. Although a lot of social groups have both women and the technologically challenged, Carly is losing votes from the immigrant population. This cartoon would not be something projected by Carly’s campaign team, but by one of her opponents, such as Barbara Boxer. This is not the type of image Carly would want to project of herself or her campaign. I believe this cartoon would be the fall of Carly’s campaign purely from living in California for 11 years and observing the large amount of immigrants both legal and illegal. Carly’s votes would need to be in favor of the immigrants in order to see a positive outcome.