Steve Bell, throwback propaganda artist part I

Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell when not abnormally obsessed with drawing farts, always characterizes President Bush as some sort of sub-human. No matter what the situation, he is cast in the light of a sort of animal without thought or feeling. It isnt even editorializing, its nothing more than hate-baiting of the oldest, most sordid, and pedantic sort.
Even when Bush quietly took issue with Vladimir Putin over his treatment of political opponents and a growing suppression of political dissent in Russia, Bell made him look the fool. Apparently snuffing free speech in Russia is okay if one can take a cheap shot at W.

The likes of Steve Bell have a long history in the cruder "politics" of Europe. The common trait is the rendering of an individual, a class, an ethnicity, a nationality, or a faith into a non-person. All this makes it easier to hate, degrade, even kill off the one set up to be the non-person. The only thing left out is a ugly mob with pitchforks, and bada-boom a la bigot: instant vulgarian with an option on a Kristallnacht of their own.