Life, 1920-09-23 · page 24 of 40
Life — September 23, 1920 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine article satirizes a newly-formed "Kickers' Party"—a protest political movement claiming to oppose established politics and corruption. The satire works on multiple levels: **The Setup:** Beverly Binks, hired as the party's orator, tours the country promoting an "anti-politics" platform while requesting campaign funds for "golf clubs." This contradicts their stated independence from financiers. **The Joke:** Their campaign contributions consist of trivial items (an egg, coal, a hog)—mocking how poorly-organized grassroots movements actually are despite grand rhetoric. **The Political Point:** The cartoons and platform mock how protest movements adopt inflated language ("97% American," "Red-blooded American," "greatest crisis") while pursuing absurd goals (mandatory breakfast nutrition, "self-determination for husbands"). The satire suggests that anti-establishment movements, despite claiming moral superiority, often repeat empty political clichés and lack genuine substance or funding—making them ineffectual as real change agents.
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+LIFE: Come and Join Our Party! Formation of the Kickers’ Party Ushers in a New Era in American Politics Our Weekly Blurb (Including Synopsis of Previous Chapters) Last week the Kickers’ Party was announced, and Beverly Binks, acknowledged as the greatest stump orator in the world, engaged by Lire to put the party on its feet. This week follows the course of this great party. EVERLY BINKS, engaged by Lirr at an enormous salary, is now touring the country in the interests of the Kickers’ Party. We are dependent upon no group of financiers. erything we do is open and aboveboard. Our motto is, “Save America, and down with politics, profiteering and pussyfooting.” We are open and aboveboard. Here is a list of our campaign con- tributions received to date: One fresh egg. One pail of hard coal. Three pounds of brown sugar. One razor-backed hog from Texas (mascot). We have just received a long letter from Beverly Binks, now traveling through the Middle West. ts of it are as follows: CONGRESS MAY BE PRETTY BAD, BUT MAYRE WE'D BETTER LEAVE "EM ALONE “Tam getting along very well, but I warn you this is an up- hill. work. subjection that any attempt to protest on the part of taxpayers The American people are so used to being under OUR FIRST THOUGHT WAS TO INSTRUCT BEVERLY BINKS Tu GO IN AND GRAB IT at large is not generally understood. They have submitted so long now that they don’t understand their power. But I think you will notice a vast difference at the end of my tour. You might send me a couple of thousand extra this week, as I am making the rounds of a number of golf clubs.” Our platform will be published in sections. It will also be subject to alteration and amendment as time goes on. This idea of a few insiders getting together and formulating a party platform is a thing of the past. Here is the first section: Platform of Kickers’ Party First—We offer our sympathy to both Republicans and Demo- crats in this supreme hour of their greatest reaction. Second—We want to say that we are 971% per cent. American, The other 2% per cent. is the way we are privileged to feel sometimes. We can do better work 97% per cent. of the time if we know that 2% per cent. of i. we can Jo.as we please. Third—We reaffirm the inalienable right of every American citizen to kick at the way the government is being conducted. By “kick” we mean to protest, to organize, to investigate and to act, provided that such action shall be in conformity with the highest American ideals, shall be founded on common honesty and common sense. We declare ourselves as follows: Self-determination for all husbands. All breakfast foods to contain at least 2.75 per cent. real nourishment. The expressions “ Red-blooded American,” “ We are confronted by the greatest crisis in our history,” “We yield to nobody—"” comicbooks.