the brilliance of Dr Seuss in rap video and political satire

How many Dr Seuss books can (or could) you recite by heart? There was a time when I could rattle off the whole of Green Eggs and Ham while driving—Thomas would sit in his car seat behind me, flipping the pages at the appropriate moment while his two younger siblings looked on. I could give Fox in Socks a good crack too, though I did sometimes have to agree with Mr Knox:

“I hate this game, Sir. This game makes my tongue quite lame, Sir.”

All the Dr Seuss rhymes are brilliant for little kids who are learning to read, as that great-fun video points out. "There’s a structure to language we all learn when we’re young, a flow to the words that could almost be sung." 

But I confess I liked reading them to my kids a whole lot more after I worked out that many of the books were also quite political. The Lorax is obvious, but Horton, Yertle and The Sneetches have political undertones too. 

Theodor Seuss Geisel (later: Dr Seuss) was a prolific and impassioned political cartoonist. How clever is this one from WW2—and how enduringly relevant!

If you’re interested in Dr Seuss’ political opinions and cartoons, you’ll probably enjoy this article via The Atlantic: The Complicated Relevance of Dr. Seuss's Political Cartoons. It says a lot.