By Holly Kozelsky
There’s nothing more fun and interesting than a good piece of satire. I’m a big fan of Mad Magazine, The Onion, a lot of Saturday Night Live skits, and Ben Williams’ columns.
To enjoy satire, one can’t be too easily offended. We have to have the ability to chuckle at ourselves as well as our opponents. Even satire that goes against what we believe in is a light-hearted look at what may be a weakness or fallacy among our beliefs, or at least, it’s a good way to understand how the other side feels.
Though most people seem entrenched to fight their side no matter what, I make a point to look at matters from both points of view.
That brings us to a wildly satirical page I came across the other day.
It’s “My Safe Space – A Place for Dems.” It’s a web page that looks like a MySpace page from the early days of social media. The page has a lot of light-colored blocks with text inside, against a black background with colorful floating Mexican sombreros.
The name of the “account-holder” is “The Democrats.” It features two men, one wearing one of those sombreros, and says “Shut it down! Male, 55 years old, Brooklyn, New York – last working day 10/01/2025. Mood: Difficult.” Those two men are Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
A bar at the top reads “Hakeem is your extended shutdown network.”
Under “Hakeem’s Blurbs,” it says:
“About Me: Hey we’re Democrats in the House and Senate. We love DEI, transgender for everyone, and handing out taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants. We couldn’t care less if our men and women in uniform get paid or if our neighborhoods are safe – we just love playing politics with people’s livelihoods!
“Heroes: Anyone who identifies as a radical leftist. Transnational gangs, illegal immigrants
“Who I’d like to meet: Honestly, we couldn’t meet enough members of Antifa or illegal immigrants. They’re so awesome.
“Nicknames: ‘Sombrero Guy’ ‘Temu Obama’ ‘Dollar Store Obama’ ‘Chuck E. Cheese Obama’
“Hakeem’s Interests:
“General: ANTIFA, acting tough, drug dealers and illegal criminal aliens
“Music: Shut it Down (Pitbull ft. Akron), Shut It Down (Drake), Money, Money, Money (ABBA), Money for Nothing (Dire Straits), Stay Woke (Meek Mill ft. Miguel), Ultimate Mariachi Music Playlist for a Fiesta
“Movies: The Shutdown (2022), Other People’s Money (1991), Ghostbusters (2016), Snow White (2025)
“Television: The View, Saturday Night Live, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Joy Reid Show
“Books: Rules for Radicals, Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, The Communist Manifesto.”
Then, in a bottom right rectangle, is the section for “Hakeem’s Friends.” Hakeem has 8 top “friends.” They are: “Joe Biden, Fenty Girl, Antifa, Soros, Chucky, Real Chucky, Maryland Dad and Tampon Tim.”
And the second-to-last word in that last sentence is one I’ve never written in any newspaper article or column and never thought I’d have to or that I would. Gee, thanks, White House, for putting that on me.
Because, indeed, though that should be a few pages of Mad Magazine, or part of a segment of Saturday Night Live skit, instead, it is part of official communications and PR from our very own federal government’s White House website.
Why doesn’t everybody just stay in their own lane? Leave the satire to the entertainers, and please just give us a serious, professional and non-embarrassing government.
And yes, of course – stay in your own lane – same for me! I have been writing columns for more than 20 years, and they are usually about family life, gardening, community or mild foibles. They have very rarely been about politics. Suddenly, in these past couple of months, a few of them have been about politics.
I don’t like that switch any more than you do, but things have just gotten crazy lately, and how can I not notice?
Good government shouldn’t be noticed. It should just happen, and citizens should be able to live their lives and focus on other things. Instead, this year, we have whiplash for doing so many double-takes. This happened? That happened? Can this be real?
Even the shy, cat-loving, gardening-crazy, home cooking-mom homebodies like me are bothered by it.
