Republicans are very upset about Dr. Seuss — and they've decided to blame Democrats

Republicans are on Day 3 of mass hysteria over a decision by Dr. Seuss’ publisher to pull the plug on six books that contained racist imagery — falsely blaming Democrats for “canceling” the popular children’s author.

Multiple GOP lawmakers have made this false claim since Tuesday, with Fox News running segment after segment on how Seuss is the latest victim of Democrats’ so-called “cancel culture” — a term Republicans and the right-wing media ecosphere is trying to use as a political cudgel in the 2022 midterm elections.

Republicans have falsely blamed everyone from President Joe Biden, to congressional Democrats, to the generic “left” for the decision by the business that runs Seuss’ estate to stop publishing the titles.

During debate about now-passed H.R. 1 — a voting rights and ethics reform bill — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said, “First, they outlaw Dr. Seuss and now they want to tell us what to say.”

Democrats did not outlaw Seuss, nor did the voting rights bill advise anyone on “what to say.”

“Apparently Dr. Seuss books are now offensive and Democrats are trying to cancel publication of anymore of his books. This has to be a joke,” Rep. Madison Cawthorn, the freshman Republican from North Carolina who has fudged multiple parts of his origin story, tweeted on Tuesday — a lie as Democrats were not responsible for decisions made by Seuss’ publisher.

“Mr. Potato Head is gender neutral, Dr. Seuss is cancelled, and Amazon is banning books. This is what a Democrat majority looks like,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) tweeted on Tuesday, even though congressional Democrats had not a single thing to do with any of these decisions. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blamed Biden, tweeting an image of Seuss’ books being top sellers on Amazon with the text, “Who knew Joe Biden was such a great book seller.” Biden also had no role in the decision to stop publishing the books.

The books that will cease to be published are “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “If I Ran the Zoo,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”

While he was alive, Seuss himself revised his own books due to criticism about the racist imagery they contained. For example, in the 1980s, he removed an offensive stereotype targeting Asians from “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street” — one of the books that will now no longer be printed. That means Seuss was being criticized for having racist imagery long before Republicans deemed “cancel culture” an issue.

Fox News has been a major player in promoting the Seuss story, spending one hour and nine minutes of air time on the lie that Seuss has been canceled, according to data compiled by Media Matters for America.

Meanwhile, MMFA reported that Fox News spent just 22 minutes covering coronavirus vaccine developments — a major issue that will help end the COVID-19 pandemic that’s led to more than 515,000 deaths and has left Americans struggling economically.

Democrats, for their part, are mocking Republicans for making the Seuss news into an issue.

“Republicans are having a multi-day freakout over a private publishing company’s decision to let some of its books go out of print, which has nothing to do with the President or Congress,” Rep. Don Beyer tweeted on Wednesday. “Meanwhile, they are trying to block aid to address the deadly pandemic and economic crisis.”

Beyer added in a Thursday morning tweet, which he sent in response to a video of Rep. Alex Mooney (R-WV) decrying the fake cancellation of Seuss, that, “No one is making my Republican colleagues ‘cancel’ their own dignity.”

“That is a choice,” Beyer added. “Just like they chose to oppose Covid relief for the American people.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.