Prisoners of War - Dr Suess

1941

"Cheer up boys! Your Congress is going to declare an all out war ... after those November elections."

This cartoon stereotypes of a Japaneses solider talking to a prison labeled  "35000U.S. Prisoners of War"
The Sun approximates the flag of Japan.

You Can’t Have Everything - Herblock

Jan 26 1938

In February 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed legislation that would increase the number of judges on the Supreme Court, which had struck down many of his New Deal programs. Roosevelt saw the Court’s “nine old men” (six of the nine judges were seventy or older) as resisting the will of the president and Congress. The bill would allow the president to add a judge for each incumbent federal court judge who was seventy or older, which would give Roosevelt up to six nominations for the Supreme Court.

Uncontrolled Campaign Spending V 92nd Congress - November 17, 1971

For the championship of the United States

Somethings never change.

Campaign finance spending soared in the 1960s. The cost of the 1968 presidential campaign was $300 million — almost double that of 1964. With Republican coffers in 1971 comfortably filled while the Democrats were some $9 million in debt, the Democratic-controlled Congress considered proposals to provide public financing. But President Richard Nixon threatened a veto. Eventually, they compromised on some public financing of presidential elections starting in 1976. Since then, loopholes in the laws have permitted almost unlimited political spending far in excess of the government's contributions and of all previous campaigns. In the year 2000 campaign, more than $300 million had already been spent on political ads alone before the end of September. This cycle is set up to be the most expensive in history.

The Law Makers - Jacob Burck

Jacob Burck 1933

Depicts JP Morgan making paper dolls out of Congress. The same actors are in play 80 years latter.