Tea Party?

Freewrite. What does that mean? Basically, freewriting is just taking some form of media and dumping your impressions, feelings, etc about it out onto paper (or in my case, this blank, somewhat-imposing white blog page). Here goes.
The form of media I chose to explore is a political cartoon published on September 22, 2011 in the Ottawa Citizen by cartoonist James Cardow. Cardow makes an interesting argument here on the current apathy of many Americans towards their present government system.

Over the past decade, political candidates have made extravagant promises in their debates and speeches: promises that give them favor in the eyes of citizens and help them to get elected. Once in office, however, it is as if the candidates have forgotten everything that brought them to their position, and their once-so-persuading promises seem to fly out the window. The American people have taken notice and, quite frankly, are fed up. For many, their frustration transforms into complete political apathy. The citizens of the United States are tired of seeing well-dressed, well-spoken individuals stand up and make commitments to the people that, time and time again, fail to see their way to completion. This cartoon does a great job showing the current apathy many Americans have adopted.

Cardow uses the setting of the infamous Boston Tea Party as the background for his statement. Familiar to anyone with any knowledge of US history, this event on December 16, 1773 showed the British empire that the American people were ready to stand up and protest the intense rulings and taxes to which they had been imposed. The tea on board the three ships had come from England and a heavy tax had been foisted which the revolutionists in the colonies were not willing to pay. They demanded that the ships return to England. When the royal governor of Massachusetts refused, firebrand revolutionist Samuel Adams called a meeting to discuss a plan of action. The meeting quickly got out of hand, and soon some 30-130 men, some disguised as Mohawk Indians, poured out of the meeting house and down to Boston Harbor, where they boarded the ships carrying the tea. They then proceeded, over the course of the next three hours, to dump all 342 chests of tea into the bay, showing the British crown that they were not willing to be coerced without representation in government.
Cardow juxtaposes this event in his cartoon by making the "revolutionaries" Facebook users. Instead of tea, it is their computers they are throwing overboard, showing their dissent with the new Facebook interface.
This cartoon makes a powerful statement about the way many Americans feel about government today. Instead of protesting current political agendas and policies, the people of the United States are so put out with broken promises that they have completely abandoned any efforts of reform, instead focusing on popular culture and making it more a integral part of their lives. Having abandoned all hopes of governmental reform, citizens the country over are disappointed in their representatives and have turned their attention to other facets of society.