Existing comment:
Mr. Schulz
Goes to Washington
As Peanuts became one of the most popular cartoons of the 20th century, when called upon, Schulz willingly offered his well-loved characters to support civic, governmental, and presidential initiatives. These initiatives included the Apollo 10 mission and John F. Kennedy's campaign for physical fitness.
Though he chose not to publicly align with a party, Schulz was generally very interested in the political scene. Similarly, his Peanuts character never definitely commented on real-world politics, though Schulz did intuitively incorporate well-timed political humor into his comic strip.
When asked what political party he belonged to, Charles Schulz regularly answered with pride that he was registered as "Declines to State."
In the election years of 1960, 1964, and 1968, Peanuts became involved in various political storylines, which mirrored real worlds events. In a 14-day series in 1968, Snoopy joins a group of demonstrating birds and carries his own sign for "Paw Power," a direct take-off of the Flower Power and Black Power ideologies of that same period.
Ultimately, Schulz believed that the subjects he dealt with in Peanuts transcended politics. For a cartoonist whose inspiration came from his own life's experiences and observations, it was the lives of ordinary people that interested him the most. |