# Doonsebury question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765 "2003-07-07T14:08:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/1 "2003-07-07T14:08:15Z")
What is Mike’s political inclination? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/2 "2003-07-07T14:43:36Z")
He’s always been more to the middle of the road than Mark (far left) or B.D. (far right). I would say that after he started his own company (and went bankrupt andrecovered) he’s probably leaned toward Libertarianism. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/3 "2003-07-07T14:49:49Z")
As I remember: In 1980 he worked on the Anderson campaign. I think when he was married to JJ, he was liberal leaning (In 1984, the advertising company wanted him to do a series of spots selling Reagan to black voters - and it bothered him.) But either last campaign, or the campaign before, I think he became a Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Jerrybear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@Jerrybear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerrybear)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/4 "2003-07-07T15:00:36Z")
Mike Doonesbury may be middle of the road, but apparently he was originally based on one of Garry Trudeau’s classmates at Yale, Charlie Pillsbury: [http://pillsbury.ctgreens.org/faq.html](http://pillsbury.ctgreens.org/faq.html) Pillsbury ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in 2002. The Greens are definitely NOT “middle of the road!” B.D. is based on Bryan Dowling, who was the Yale quarterback when Trudeau was a student. Dowling played in the NFL for several teams including the Packers. I am not sure if the real life Dowling is as right wing as the B.D. character. I am not sure who Megaphone Mark Slackmeyer is based on, but I am sure that there were plenty of guys like him at Yale circa late 60s/early 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/5 "2003-07-07T18:24:38Z")
It’s somewhere beyond nonsensical to think that the fact that Doonesbury characters started in 1969 as satiric versions of real people might have anything whatsoever to do with the way those characters are portrayed in 2003. There probably was not much relation to reality in 1969, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/6 "2003-07-07T19:09:25Z")
Mike’s a (moderate?) Republican. He came out of the Republican closet after 1994 elections and worked for Forbes campaign in 1996. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/7 "2003-07-07T19:15:04Z")
Mike Doonesbury portrayed as a middle of the road vaguely liberal-but-not-too-liberal person. In short, a mouthpiece for Gary Trudeau. Not to say that what Mike says is always what Trudeau thinks, but Mike is clearly the character that he identifies with and is the center of the strip. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/8 "2003-07-07T22:42:58Z")
Now his daughter is a Democrat. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/9 "2003-07-08T02:26:35Z")
And Mike is planning on voting for Lieberman, whom he considers to be an “emergency Republican.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/10 "2003-07-08T03:42:36Z")
Lemur866 writes: \> Mike Doonesbury portrayed as a middle of the road vaguely \> liberal-but-not-too-liberal person. In short, a mouthpiece for \> Gary Trudeau. No, Trudeau is clearly more liberal than Mike. Mike is a moderate Republican. Trudeau is a moderate Democrat. Furthermore, just because Mike is the character who’s gotten the most space in the strip (and who the strip is named after), that doesn’t mean that he’s a mouthpiece for Trudeau. Mike is clearly shown to be a flawed character who sometimes does stupid and/or bad things. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/11 "2003-07-10T12:28:22Z")
Bear in mind my Conservative newspaper moved the strip out of the funnies long ago. Who did Mike [marry](http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/)? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/12 "2003-07-10T12:48:36Z")
I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make, carnivorousplant. (I wish people wouldn’t make offhand remarks like this assuming that everyone would get all their references.) What does who Mike married have to do with it? Are you talking about his first wife, Joanie, who’s a flaky artist? Mike divorced her, and much of the reason that the marriage fell apart was because of her flakiness. Also, during that first marriage he became more conservative. He became less tolerant of her weirdness during the marriage. Or are you talking about his second marriage? My first assumption on reading your post was that the newspaper you read moved the strip out of the funnies because they didn’t like the fact that Mike had married Kim, who’s Asian. But I guess that that’s not what you mean. Kim is shown as being more liberal than Mike, incidentally. Not just conservative newspapers moved the strip out of the cartoon pages. _The Washington Post_, usually considered a pretty liberal newspaper, also moved it to the editorial pages. I guess that they thought that it was too political for the funnies. Oddly, they kept _B.C._ and _The Wizard of Id_, pretty conservative strips, in the cartoon pages. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/13 "2003-07-10T12:49:09Z")
That woman in the strip is JJ, his first wife. Joanie’s daughter. Hung around with Zeke and burned down houses before hooking up with Mike. Became an eccentric performance artist. Left Mike for Zeke because their life was too normal. She now hates Mike with a passion, so Mike sees nothing wrong with sticking a shiv in her ribs every now and then. Mike’s now married to Kim, who you might remember from the 70’s as the adopted Veitnamese baby who did imitations of Jimmy Carter. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/14 "2003-07-10T12:57:15Z")
Thanks, Knowed. That Kim??? “Big Mac!” Kim? Wow. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/15 "2003-07-10T12:57:32Z")
The Post didn’t move the strip to the editorial pages; they moved it to the second page of the Style section (as opposed to the final three pages of the section, where the rest of the comics are). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/16 "2003-07-10T12:57:33Z")
Excuse me for screwing up the names. Mike’s first wife is named J.J. I think her actual first name is Joan, but she’s called J.J. to distinguish her from her mother (who also appears in the strip) who’s called Joanie. (In fact, Joanie appeared in the strip long before J.J. did. She was a major character for a while.) ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/17 "2003-07-10T12:59:45Z")
By the way, **carnivorousplant** , the Doonesbury site does a pretty good job explaining the histories of the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/18 "2003-07-10T13:06:18Z")
Ack, you’re right. That’s what I get for typing anything at this hour of the morning. I made two mistakes. I got a name wrong and I got the section of the paper wrong. ---
**Author:** ![SuaSponte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SuaSponte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuaSponte)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/19 "2003-07-10T14:17:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wendell Wagner \* > Not just conservative newspapers moved the strip out of the cartoon pages. _The Washington Post_, usually considered a pretty liberal newspaper, also moved it to the editorial pages. I guess that they thought that it was too political for the funnies. Oddly, they kept _B.C._ and _The Wizard of Id_, pretty conservative strips, in the cartoon pages. Moving _Doonesbury_ from the comics page to the editorial page/page 3 of the Style section (in the Washington Post)/etc. in general had nothing to do with the paper’s view of the contents of _Doonesbury._ Oddly enough, the moves (which occurred around 10 years ago), had to do with size. About 10 years ago or so, newspapers decided to downsize comic strips. They were literally shrunk, so that more strips could be fit on the same page, and there would be more room for advertising. Trudeau refused to go along. He wanted his strips to remain the same size, and he had enough clout to have his way - if you look at a paper where _Doonesbury_ is on the comics page, you will note that the strip is taller and wider than the other ones. Some newspapers decided that having this one oversized strip on their comics page would ruin the layout/cause wasted space. So they moved _Doonesbury_ to another place in the paper, usually the editorial page. Sua ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765/20 "2003-07-10T16:21:32Z")
J. J. stands for Joan Junior, to be exact. (Yes, I have all the Doonesbury books.) There’s complete cast bios at the [Doonesbury](http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/thecast/) site to help people through the incredibly tangled and convoluted lives of his intertwined characters. That’s the best thing about the strip: he has so many characters that he can use some combination of them to comment about anything that happens. He’s never allowed himself to be put in the position of having to do the same joke day after day for thirty years. My newspaper has finally shrunk Doonesbury to the size of the other strips on the comics page. I don’t know if this means Trudeau has finally relented on the size issue or if the paper would rather risk a suit than have to rejigger the comics page every day. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonsebury-question/186765.md?page=2)