And if you don't value it, you are going to lose it. As much as people like to wave the flag, the truth is that what makes us unique is that crazy, messy democracy and our Bill of Rights. I think when you don't read, and you're not informed, and you don't care, and the numbers of those people are in the majority, we're in trouble.Īnd that goes beyond Trump. I'm scared that people don't recognize that a democracy is fragile and that when it goes away for expediency, it really goes away. This has nothing to do with right or left. And I pray for this country because I'm scared. What's going to happen is going to happen. I think we're all pretty locked in, right? Everyone is really polarized. Emma SilversĪs we head into the election, what do you make of the political climate in the United States right now? Pastis spoke to me by phone in September, the day after the Dark Orange Sky. (It has also, to be fair, meant humor that would not be out of place in a 7th grade gym class.) It’s a dance that has occasionally landed Pastis on the wrong side of his syndicate, or of individual newspapers, which have no qualms about censoring strips that don’t meet their standards for the funny pages-in 2016, this meant nixing a strip that referenced NSA wiretapping and ISIS.

It’s also a world where politics color the characters’ lives, with real headlines seeping into the story-sometimes with a wink, but always in a way that feels natural. But the world Pastis has created is all his own. Pearls has clear spiritual ancestors in Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, and Bloom County. They talk to neighbors, read the news, watch TV, and occasionally have a beer at the bar.īut you only need to read Pearls for a week for the strip’s wry blend of black comedy and pathos-biting social commentary, pure tenderness and some extremely stupid puns-to worm their way into your heart.

Its cast of characters are all named for their species: Rat, Pig, Zebra, Goat. The daily comic strip, which is penned by Santa Rosa’s Stephan Pastis and appears in more than 650 newspapers, takes place in a suburb. To the uninitiated, Pearls Before Swine appears deceptively simple. In ‘ What’s on Your Ballot,’ KQED checks in with ten different artists, activists and cultural figures about the issues on their minds and their hopes for the country.

Citizens will vote in the midst of a global pandemic, severe climate change, an uprising for racial justice and an administration that has eroded the norms of democracy. In 2020, the United States faces an election like no other.

Pearls pastis