The book is Diversity Lane: A Liberal Family Saga. It offers two hundred-odd of Zack Rawsthorne’s cartoons satirizing the bourgeois left. You’ve probably seen some of these cartoons if you visit conservative websites much. Zack’s been doing them for three years now, and the series has its own website.

As with all good cartoon series there is a manageably small cast of characters: husband (ACLU attorney, ponytail), wife (elementary school teacher), two kids (cynical girl, clueless boy), wife’s live-in lesbian partner (angry activist who “believes everything should be equal to everything else”), and wife’s loopy lesbian ex (Wiccan pothead stuck in hippie phase).

Zack takes them through various adventures. They adopt a black orphan: “You had her all morning at Love Me Yoga and you took her to the Vegan-Go-Round twice this week! When do I get to be seen with her?” Obamamania permeates the family home: the towels by the bathroom washbasin say HOPE and CHANGE.

There are swipes at gay rights, open borders, Islamophilia, global warming, France, race panic (“Liking snow isn’t racist, is it?”), and Installation Art. (“Let’s face it, we’re all afraid to ask whether it’s important art or just some junk the janitor left behind.”)

I approve of the concept here, but I can’t say I got any belly laughs from Diversity Lane. A couple of chuckles and a dozen or so smiles”€”that was about it.

Political cartooning is not a dead art form. Michael Ramirez occasionally gets it right, though he has the knack of making his characters look funny, which helps a lot. Sean Delonas peaked a few years ago but still hits the mark once in a while.

But those guys are drawing actual politicians. Mocking the powerful is always easier than mocking mere abstract types. The exaggeration of Obama’s ears, Bush’s smirk, Bill’s bulbous nose, or Hillary’s thick legs reminds us of universal human imperfection and pierces any illusions that our pols are exemplars of sagacity”€”or anything other than ambition. Thus prepped, we are in a mood to laugh even at a feeble joke.

Doonesbury is the model for what Zack Rawsthorne is trying to do. It is on the other side of the political aisle and doesn’t get any laughs from me, but it’s well done and keeps a few narrative threads going. Perhaps you can only do this kind of thing well with a strip”€”something Zack might want to consider.

Or possibly I’ve been too long aware of the bourgeois left and their absurdities. The amusement’s worn off, leaving only irritation. For someone younger, to whom the narcissism, hypocrisy, and moral status-striving of these types is a newer revelation, Diversity Lane might be an appropriate gift. Buying it would at least be a small poke in Garry Trudeau’s eye.