This Week's "Gee, That Linus Van Pelt Really Was a Nutjob, Wasn't He?" Post

In 1964, Linus ran for class president, and THIS GUY HERE points out how Schulz brilliantly connected his own race with Barry Goldwater's:

Goldwater, a senator from Arizona, was noted for his tendency to make extreme statements that his campaign then had to walk back and for attracting the support of conspiratorial groups like the John Birch Society (whom he tried to disassociate from).

And of course Linus, a fucking lunatic, was the same way:

Linus’s campaign leaned into some of his most extreme, fundamentalist views as in the above strip where Linus uses the language of Jeremiah and other Old Testament prophets as metaphors for his platform. As suggested in the strip, the school administration was quite embarrassed by the whole showing. His classmates, however, seemed to rally to his passionate cries. With Charlie Brown as his vice president and his sister Lucy as his campaign manager, Linus looked to be on track to win election.

How did he manage to finally derail things in the end? The goddam Great Pumpkin, of course:

Back in November I wrote the following: "Peanuts has been hugely popular for 60 years and yet I've never even heard of, much less met, anyone else called Linus. Interesting."

I'm just going to say it: people don't name their kid Linus for the same reason they don't name them Adolf. THERE I SAID IT!!!!