Auchtoon!

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.

Of course Americans did have the sense not to elect Dan Quayle (who was the Marco Rubio of his time). But we let Senator Joe McCarthy run rampant for far too long (who was the Ted Cruz of his time). But I digress.

Here’s a cartoon I did back in 1998 of Geoffery Fieger after he gone off “speaking his mind” in a very Trumpian sort of way. It’s one of my favorites. Props to the Grand Rapids Business Journal for running it.

This is our wake-up call, Michigan — Florida is nothing any state should aspire to!

It’s more than a little pretentious to create a very wordy cartoon around a word I have a difficult time pronouncing, but obfuscate is the perfect fit here. It means to render obscure, unclear, or unintelligible, and it is a tactic used more and more at all levels of political discourse.

In the cases of Flint water and Detroit schools, it is our moral and fiscal responsibility to avoid letting side issues steal our attention away from the actual problem at hand: finding a long-term solution for real people suffering real harm. We need to stay focused!

And, yes, that is Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof. I’m pretty sure his middle name is Obfuscate.

News came out this week that Governor Snyder has hired a Public Relations firm to help him navigate through this messy, messy Flint water crisis. Nobody should be surprised. It was a by-the-numbers, top-down, corporate CEO type of decision, and that has consistently been Governor Snyder’s jam. What is hard to take, however, is that the PR firm is now obviously coaching him to be an empathetic, I-feel-your-pain, point-fingers-of-blame-at-others, I’m-with-you-guys, man of the people. This abrupt shift has been nothing but awkward (and kinda nauseating). NOT your jam, Governor Snyder. Not your jam.

Which isn’t to say there has not been caustic rhetoric pouring out of other campaigns. And as the pressure builds up to and into Iowa and the primary season, expect it to get worse. But to this point, Donald Trump and Senator Cruz have distinguished themselves (if that’s the right term) with their ability to leach out the latent fears and prejudices of the American voter.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
January 3, 2016

Also posted online at MLive.com, January 3, 2016

This week I received an email from the Vice President of Content at MLive Media Group notifying me that they would no longer contract for my services under our existing freelance agreement. It was not a surprise. This past May, MLive cut the number of cartoons they paid me for from weekly to monthly. During the summer, I continued provide a weekly cartoon along with commentary for posting on MLive.com. (Up to that point my cartoons were exclusive to the print editions.) I had hoped to demonstrate the value of Michigan-focused editorial cartoons in an online format. While it is clear now my efforts did not close the sale, I did very much enjoy sharing and engaging online, and I’m happy to have had the experience.

I would like to thank those at MLive I had the pleasure to work with, particularly my editors: Ed Golder, Paul Keep and Dan Hawkins — each consummate professionals. They challenged me by allowing me space to run while when necessary reminding me of the bounds of common sense and good grammar. The benefits of working with people you respect cannot be overstated.

Despite my disappointment with their decision, I would also like thank MLive and predecessor, the Grand Rapids Press. Editorial cartoons in newspapers — especially local editorial cartoons — are a truly American institution, and I’ve appreciated the opportunity to be a participant.

And I would like to thank you, the readers for taking the time to be readers. For a cartoonist, that’s really all that’s needed. But I also appreciated when you shared your reactions — from kind encouragements to the angry dissents. (Okay, sure, I found the occasional unibomber-like manifesto a bit unsettling, but otherwise the feedback was all good.)

I hope to find other venues because I think editorial cartoons are valuable. They somehow roll up a chaotic mix of satire, exaggeration and unfairness into tidy packages that (when done well) provoke thought and reveal truth. Anyway, that’s what I aim for.

All the best,
John

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
December 6, 2015

Also posted online at MLive.com, December 5, 2015

In the movie “Silver Linings Playbook,” the character Pat (Bradley Cooper) seemingly reneges on a promise to compete in a dance competition with Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence). Tiffany is upset and repeatedly screams after Pat as he walks away and out the front door, “You are not a standup guy!” (Spoiler alert: In the end, Pat does in fact prove himself to be a standup guy.)

I have a much lesser emotional attachment to our governor, but based on his recent actions I still have the urge to yell after him, “You are not a standup guy!” Repeatedly.

As with John Engler in his first term, Rick Snyder originally had a platform, he got elected on that platform and his actions as governor were consistent with that platform. You might not have liked what he did (cut business taxes, increased powers for emergency managers, pushed through the Gordie Howe bridge, etc.), but he did what he said he wanted to do. Regardless of your opinion about the actual policies, he seemed to be a standup guy.

I think that Gov. Snyder jumped the shark, so to speak, was when he signed off on the right-to-work legislation. Of course he never promised not to. He was purposely, willfully vague. Kept his options open. Said “I have no opinion” pretty much up until it sped through a lame-duck session. Again, agree or disagree with the actual policy, it remains decidedly not a standup move.

And now with his pause button on Syrian refugees. As the second panel of the cartoon says, I find it hard to believe Gov. Snyder was unaware of the details of our current vetting process. Encouraging immigration, especially as a means to bring new energy to some of our cities, was one of his core beliefs, a differentiator. Why go so quickly from advocate to obstacle? Why give up credibility for fleeting, short-term political gain?

If it’s me reading the signs, I see a politician who has lost his way.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
November 1, 2015

It’s easy to write off Gov. Rick Snyder’s recent shenanigans that I’ve documented here as simply a politician being a politician, and that’s not right. First, the whole business of relentlessly staying on message with contrived positivity until reality forces you to admit that “mistakes were made” is not unique to politics — think CEOs, military brass, head coaches of major sport teams. But second, and more importantly, blaming it all on politics is dangerous. That just feeds the pervasive hopelessness of “all politicians are bad, government never works,” and that can lead to really, really bad choices like, say, Donald Trump.

No, the base issue is poor leadership. Consider Lincoln and Churchill, both consummate politicians who had to rally their constituents under difficult circumstances — sometimes not being entirely truthful, sometimes failing miserably. But after failures, a big reason why they were able to maintain and rebuild support was because they didn’t try to sell false optimism. They didn’t cling to mistakes with a big ol’ smile.

I understand that the big ol’ smile is part of Gov. Snyder’s shtick. And when he was a first-term governor I found it sometimes cloying but also practical. In leading a state out of a 12-year recession, he needed to swing the pendulum back over to the optimism side. But as a second-term governor, not so much. When, for example, decisions you made have resulted in poisoned water, you really need to assess and identify what is important about that. (Hint: HOLY CRAP! YOU POISONED THE WATER!) Then you need to own the mistake, move forward with seriousness and determination, and lose the big ol’ smile.