Auchtoon!

I was listening to a recent It’s Just Politics podcast, which included a conversation between co-host Zoe Clark and Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. Clark noted that Dingell has been particularly adept at identifying political cross-currents and trends, mostly due to Dingell’s habit of going to where her constituents are and, you know, actually listening to them.

Dingell has been frequenting union halls, and as it turns out, it’s very unlikely that every rank and file worker is going to vote Democrat, despite official union endorsement. This should surprise no one — the days of political machines delivering votes are, blessedly, gone. Ideally, voting is a personal choice, not a group activity.

But as a personal choice, it’s easy to overcomplicate. We go down rabbit holes trying to align politics, anticipate outcomes, strategize on issues. We are usually better off just keeping it simple. So putting myself in a union worker’s shoes, I think I’d go for a presidential candidate who didn’t have a well-documented history of stiffing workers (and customers and creditors and…).

I think the biggest tell that the current Republican Party is no longer the party of Ronald Reagan is its complete lack of positivity. I mean, sure, Reagan went down some dark paths scaring us with stories of welfare queens and godless commies. But he also presented the United States of America as a shining city on a hill and was endlessly enthusiastic about not just our past, but our present and future as well.

Now and for the past few years, the GOP has been so committed to messaging with fear and anger that the sudden wave of happy, optimistic Democrats and their appeal to voters have caught them completely off guard. Worse, they seem incapable of generating any positivity themselves. And specifically in Michigan, their options to find a Reagan-like personality on their team to somehow get that mojo back appears to be, well, limited.

My wife and I just got back from a summer vacation that spanned Michigan locations from Kalamazoo to the Keweenaw, and I gotta say, we live in a truly beautiful state. Sure, the perfect weather helped. But do you now what else helped? The roads. Yep, you read that right: The Michigan roads.

It had been eight years since we took such an extensive road trip, and the roads (particularly in northern lower Michigan and the UP) are noticeably improved. Not just the smooth pavement, but the addition of passing lanes, clearer sightlines, and roadside rest stops made it a pleasure. Nicely done, Department of Transportation and road construction workers!

Geez Louise, I’m so rested and relaxed I’m complimenting government agencies! So you can understand why I’m looking to avoid anything that will harsh this particular mellow. Say, for example, salty old Republican politicians who want to fill me with fear and anger.

I don’t blame them. It’s a proven strategy, and between their presidential ticket and U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, they seem pretty committed to it. But that doesn’t mean I have to let them ruin my summer.

Is it just me or have you, dear readers, also seen a considerable uptick in politics-related email and texts these past few months? It may be related to this editorial cartooning gig, but I don’t think so.

‘Tis election season, of course, but then when is it never not election season?

I could invest some time and try to remove myself from these lists. But I get such a wide variety (both parties, candidates, and nebulous “committees”) that I’m afraid it might cause more harm than good — if it’s confirmed that I’m a sentient being, I may be completely overrun.

Would love to write more, but I have an inbox to clear out.

I drew this cartoon a week ahead of time so I’d be free and clear to enjoy vacation. It’s always a challenge to guess ahead at what might remain relevant. But to be honest, I hedged my bet considerably by picking race as a topic because it is safely always relevant.

So a week ago, the buzz was about Kamala Harris and floating the accusation that she was a DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) hire. This has now been superseded by Donald Trump’s rant about Harris that, in his esteemed assessment, she is somehow not Black. This, of course, from a person and a party (they are really now the same thing) who often profess not to see color and are annoyed by all this racial stuff. Yet they keep weaponizing it.

In any case, I’m sadly confident this cartoon will have another good reason to be relevant next week.

But I do think the common ground here is the aspiration to treat all people as people first.