Bush League Allstars

Published December 20, 2023 • Updated December 20, 2023

Six different decks of “Bush League Allstars” political playing cards, United States, 2004.

Produced in 2004 by Liberty Productions, this collection of six different Bush League Allstar Playing Cards parodies prominent figures of the George W. Bush Presidency, primarily around the period 1993-2004, between the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the 2004 election in which Bush was narrowly re-elected.

According to the original Liberty Productions website “the Bush League Allstars constitute a heaping five-course meal of conservative red-meat for those on the Right who are fed up debating the kooky Left, and who have chosen to just laugh at them instead! It is the wittiest, most artfully crafted collection of conservative political playing cards ever assembled. We take 'em all on -- thugs, tyrants, jihadists, appeasers, singers, actors, "documentary" filmmakers, activists, professors, judges, Terry McAuliffe, the media, Clintonistas, 527s, Terry McAuliffe, RINOs, race hustlers, socialists, Terry McAuliffe, every presidential candidate and Terry McAuliffe”. The website is now no longer available.

The 6 boxes (front & back)

Each pack is named: (1) Useful idiots - reporters, journalists, correspondents, news anchors, TV hosts - named after Joseph Stalin’s description of the left-wing media; (2) Loopy Leftists, - a witty gathering of entertainment stars and left-wing intellectuals, “all of whom share an undying love for liberalism and a never-ending disdain for America” ; (3) Thugs & Weasels, a survey of evil-doers, bad-boys, and ne'er-do-wells who threaten the world's pursuit of life and liberty; (4) Allstars 93-03 – a step back in time to remember some of the more parody-friendly characters and events of the previous ten years; (5) The Liberators, a tribute deck honouring the Coalition-of-the-Willing - despots, autocrats, right-wing politicians, supporters of invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan; (6) Election 2004 – an unflattering review of current (mainly-Democrat) politicians.

Bush League Allstars ’93 to ’03

Bush League Allstars playing cards, United States, 2004

Bush League Useful Idiots

Bush League Loopy Leftists

Bush League Election 2004

Bush League The Liberators

Bush League Thugs & Weasels

Above: cards from the six separate decks of “Bush League Allstars” political playing cards produced by Liberty Productions, United States, 2004. Cards are large 10 x 7 cm.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of these cards went to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. This charity was created to provide support to families of those soldiers who died on the battlefields of Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

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By Peter Burnett

Member since July 27, 2022

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I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.

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Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.

Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.

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