Your Presidential Candidate Isn’t Above Being Made Fun Of!

Yesterday, after Hillary Clinton secured the Democratic nomination, I put some jokes on Twitter and Facebook about Bernie Sanders losing the nomination. A few minutes after, I received a private message stating about how my jokes about Sanders weren't funny and were annoying this person.

The joke that started this mess.

It's no secret that I've been a Hillary supporter throughout the Primaries, but I'm also not above laughing when people make fun of her. Some of the stuff is legitimately funny. Also, it's not like I only make fun of Bernie Sanders, I regularly make fun of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, etc. This interaction got me thinking: Why do we all think that our candidate of choice is above being made fun of?

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After this person messaged me, I asked them how they would feel if someone messaged them about all of their anti-Trump posts. Their response was "Tell them that they are racist." That's not really helpful, either. While several Donald Trump supporters might fall into this category, this isn't true for all. I met a lot of decent people at the Donald Trump rally in Evansville who wouldn't fall into the category of racist. I don't agree with any of what Trump says, but I'm not going to categorize all of his supporters as outright racist. Just because Donald Trump is super-easy to make fun of (and it is sooooo easy), doesn't mean that his supporters don't take offense to the jokes.

The point I'm trying to make is that if you want to make fun of one candidate (Trump), then you have to accept that other people can make fun of who you support. Just because Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton (or the one person still hugging their Ted Cruz body-pillow) has your support, doesn't make them immune to having jokes made about them. By saying your candidate is above ridicule because you support them is super elitist. You are not a special snowflake just because you like candidate A over candidate B. I really respect the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, for their stance on either you make fun of everyone or you make fun of no one.

And it's completely fine to think something that I said isn't funny. Is my Bernie Sanders joke breaking new ground? Not really, but I enjoyed writing it. You can say it isn't funny, but I still have the right to say it, even if you dislike it because it's aimed at your candidate.

If you think Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump really is the best choice for America, that's great. But people are going to disagree with you. And sometimes, that leads to hilarious jokes. Because I'm hilarious.