The Complete U-Turn of Senator Portman

With the upcoming discussion on gay marriage in the supreme court, much controversy has surrounded the topic. It appears that the shift towards marriage equality has occurred very rapidly, and many politicians are jumping their original stance on the issue in support of gay marriage. One such person to jump ship was senator portman. The following cartoon serves to show how this actually ended up happening and states the irony in his situation. Portman has a son who came out to him as gay, and he cites that as the reason for his transition on the stance:

Source: http://www.cagle.com/news/gay-marriage-2013/page/35/#.UVxjaavwK9I

But under it all, Portman is still a conservative who needs to appeal to his conservative platform. The author juxtaposes Portman's stance on "family values" against his son's obvious support of gay marriage. The author makes it a point though to portray Portman as a politician and makes it obvious that politics gets in the way of his situation. The expression on the son is far more enthusiastic, whereas Portman looks like he is almost faking his support of his son. The use of juxtaposition in this cartoon is very strong and effective and works well in explaining the ironic predicament that Portman is in and the contradictions of his stance.