Auchtoon!

I guess this one came from experiencing one too many “Flint made its own mess; let them suffer” comments. I mean, I understand the sentiment. Anybody familiar with Flint over the past 40 years knows of the many poor decisions, the wasted resources, the sometimes straight-up corruption. (Is there a better cautionary tale of the bad that can happen when you elect an egotistical, speaks-his-mind, “successful” businessman who promises to make things great again than former mayor Don Williamson?) But even if you ignore the overwhelming forces of de-industrialization and globalization and say that Flint’s problems are entirely self-inflicted, it would still not be in anybody’s long-term interest to consider Flint residents as something less than other people.

In fact, it’s exactly that sort of thinking that created the environment for the water crisis to happen. If you don’t care about the people, it’s much easier to flip that switch; if you don’t care about the people, it’s much easier to ignore the obvious and delay response; if you don’t care about the people, it’s much easier to point fingers and avoid responsibility. In Flint’s case, we ended up with lead poisoning and deaths from Legionnaire’s Disease. Now radicalize that uncaring, and we end up with terrorist attacks and dozens dead in Brussels.

It all starts with devaluing human life, and no good comes from it.

Ours is a system of checks and balances. And one of the biggest checks is getting yelled at. Nobody likes to be yelled at, and that’s exactly what getting called to testify before congress is. Some will say, “I look forward to the opportunity.” That’s bullcrap. You may get to give your statement. You may get to defend your actions. But at some point, you are going to get yelled at — your name in big block, highly readable letters right in front of you as that soundbite gets played over and over. And whether the legislators wagging their fingers at you are sincerely passionate or bloviating only to hear themselves speak, it doesn’t matter. You and your super-sized politician, business mogul or (in the olden days) union boss ego have to sit there and take it.

I’m not sure how things will go for Governor Snyder today. I do think he got a lucky draw in that today is St Patrick’s Day and the first big day of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, which might suck a good deal of the public attention oxygen out of the air. I suspect it will get partisan with Democrats tearing into Snyder while Republicans try to nail the EPA to the wall. The cartoon addresses my feeling about that. I just hope some good comes from it for the people of Flint and that the powerful take note to consider more carefully the consequences of their future actions.

So I was watching Animal House a few days ago, a movie near and dear to my heart. (My wife and I had our first date at a toga party. For you Flint Powers grads, yes, the infamous Mike Kushuba toga party.) It occurred to me that there was a metaphor there for the current presidential race, specifically the Republican flavor.

Consider Dean Wormer and the Omegas to be the Republican establishment. Consider the Deltas to be Trump supporters. Now I know what you’re thinking, “I like the Deltas! I don’t want them to be the Trump supporters.” Hang with me. I would submit that the Deltas by themselves are fairly loathsome: self-indulgent, somewhat racist, certainly misogynistic, willfully stupid, but they do speak their mind. (Does this sound familiar?) The only reasons we like these guys is (1) they are entertaining and (2) Dean Wormer, and the Omegas are even more loathsome. It’s fun to see somebody (anybody) stick it to the establishment.

Admittedly, it’s not a perfect metaphor. I would cast Karl Rove as Dean Wormer, Mitt Romney as Greg Marmalard (the Omega leader), and Ted Cruz as Neidermeyer (because nobody on the Omega side could stand Neidermeyer either). Beyond that, it kinda breaks down. Although I can imagine this scene:

Trump: [after the Republican establishment has conspired to take the nomination away from him] “What? Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until I decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!”

Supporter 1: “Germans?”

Supporter 2: “Forget it, he’s rolling.”

My cartoons are going to be posted Fridays on Andrew Heller’s website! Andrew is a hilarious and insightful Michigan-based columnist of many years. I couldn’t be more pleased to share a space with him again. (We are both formerly of MLive.) Stop by the site and click around. Feel free to share, post and generally cause a frenzy.

Yes, yes. I know Ben Carson dropped out and won’t be one of the participants in the Michigan Republican Presidential primary. I was literally inking his face when I found out. But you know what? I decided to keep him in the cartoon. First, as a hat tip to his Michigan roots. But mostly for enduring the Republican debate sideshows. Dr. Carson deserves to be voted against as much as any of the other candidates.