Auchtoon!

After years of stagnant (at best) population growth, Michigan is scrambling for ways to keep Michiganders from moving out, especially young people.

Of course it’s ridiculous to think that building walls would be effective in keeping people in — but no more ridiculous than thinking a 1,954 mile wall along the Mexican border would be effective in keeping people out.

Instead of building barriers in 2024, perhaps we should focus on problem solving the source issues. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and here’s to a world with less walls in the new year!

A typical holiday season juxtaposition for editorial cartoonists: the Holy Family as poor, desperate refugees and the current treatment of poor, desperate refugees by certain folks who worship the Holy Family. It’s kind of low hanging fruit, and I have to admit that’s where I started.

But there is so much more hypocrisy out there to choose from! So I looked further and was inspired by listening to “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” from Handel’s Messiah, which is often performed at Christmas time. The lyrics are from Isaiah 9:6:

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace

It’s the “prince of peace” that always sticks with me. I can’t think of a more perfect description of what a savior should be.

It’s well within reason to expect those who tell you what they are against to also be able to tell you what they are for. I mean, if you’re upset about inflation or the border situation and somebody tells you to vote for them because they can fix it, they should be able to tell you how, right?

And yet, by my observation, Republican candidates (local, state, national) seem to be pretty good at identifying problems but lacking in actual plans and answers. It’s not like Democrats are great at this either. But they do seem to come up with functional legislation every once in while.

It’s pretty obvious why this is — it’s much safer to gin up support by railing against an issue than proposing a plan to solve it. Plans can be checked, analyzed, reviewed — and followed up with challenges and criticism. That’s no fun. Plus, I imagine it’s difficult to develop actual plans when there is likely a chorus of campaign advisors from your party telling you not to.