Auchtoon!

All the nominees were very, very good this year. But Mr. Hublot was exceptional. Go ahead, it’s only 11 minutes — treat yourself!

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News March 2, 2014

I was listening to a story on the radio last week about the court case in Detroit regarding a lesbian couple who want marriage status so they can legally adopt each other’s kids. They can’t do that now because of the 2004 ballot proposal that put a ban on gay marriage in the Michigan constitution. This court case could be a major step toward overturning that law.

They interviewed a pastor who was part of a group protesting in support of the gay marriage ban. His reasoning is that there was a vote, the majority of voters decided to ban gay marriage, and it is wrong and disrespectful to revisit the issue. As far as he is concerned, it’s a done deal. End of story. For ever and ever. Let’s move on.

That seemed to me to be the worst possible arguement. Whatever your feelings are about gay marriage, the idea that a majority decision on any subject should forever makes it so, well, it’s un-American. The genius of our system is not that the founders got everything right at the get-go. (As any non-white, not-male, not-landowner can tell you, they didn’t.) What they did get right was setting the structure. The genius of our system is the flexibility baked in that allows growth and provides stability. There is nothing more American than evolving. We are perfectly free to keep our good ideas, and we are equally free to fix our bad ones.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
February 23, 2014

A week ago Jane and I were at O’Hare after visiting Chicago. As you walk and sit and meander your way around an airport, you can’t help but to catch snippets of news from the millions of monitors broadcasting CNN. (In fact, I get this Pavlovian response when I flip by CNN when I’m at home — I get this anxious feeling I’m in an airport — and an even more anxious feeling that I don’t have my ticket.) It seemed every time I paid a bit of attention, there was some southern lawmaker either actively saying something insulting or being reported to have done something insulting. It was all in regards to a union vote at a VW plant in Chattanooga. The UAW had been trying to organize the plant and called for a vote. The southern lawmakers, led it seemed by Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, had been doing everything in their power to avoid this (and not feeling particularly bounded by fairness or truth).

So it was a pretty easy cartoon to draw from that experience. I felt myself sympathetic to the UAW — not because I’m necessarily pro-union. (In general, I believe in the purpose of unions and the positive benefits they can have; but I believe many unions — the UAW among them — are stuck fighting battles from the last century and need to modernize to be more relevant.) But because Bob Corker et al can be such hypocritical turds. I just hate it when those guys win (or think they won).

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
February 16, 2014

Of course every other year is an election year. And there are many other convenient excuses when it’s not. So… enjoy the pothole dodging everybody! (And, um, avoid bridges if at all possible.)

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
February 9, 2014

Okay, so yeah, I was taking a swipe at Governor Snyder in this one. The state of Michigan is in the odd position of running a surplus this year, and there has been much talk about what to do with it. One suggestion is to get rid of a tax Snyder championed on pension income. Snyder stated last week that this would be a bad idea because he thought the tax was fair and that not taxing pension income would be unfair to younger people. I mostly go along with that, but Snyder’s defense of young people seemed disingenuous when you look at his record of cutting education funding.

But the bigger point is that there really is no such thing as a “fair” tax. I can go with “sensible” or “necessary” or “tolerable,” but trying to sell any tax as morally sound is only going to tick off the people who end up paying more and getting less benefit. I’m more inclined to pitch a tax as “Look, somebody has to pay for the stuff we share. Let’s think it through, do the best we can, and no whining.” But then I’m not a politician.

Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
February 2, 2014

No, seriously — this is exactly how the process works.

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 26, 2014

Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema went off again. This time opining about Muslim people by asking this question: “Have you ever seen a Muslim do anything that contributes positively to the American way of life?” Not the first time Agema has gone done that road. Here’s I cartoon I did a few years ago. (It’s one of my favorites.) And here’s the backstory on this latest embarrassment.

The point is, the GOP (at least ostensively) is trying to attract new voters by portraying itself as more inclusive. Agema keeps working hard in the exact opposite direction. Fun fact: I originally conceived this comic with Agema in the window looking like this:

For a variety of reasons, my editors and I decided to go with the petulant little kid approach.

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 19, 2014

After many, many, many years of economic challenges, Michigan finds itself in the unfamiliar situation of having a budget surplus. Estimates put the surplus at close to a billion dollars. One school of thought is to reinvest that money in programs and projects that have been cut continuously for more than a decade. Another thinks refunding money to taxpayers is the way to go. A third way proposes socking that money away in a rainy day fund. All good thoughts that should be explored and debated. What I don’t want to happen is for the legislators to get so caught up in how to use the surplus for political gain that they don’t actually do anything positive with it. Which is why a smack or two across the face may not be a bad idea. (Lawyer note: John Auchter accepts all the benefit but none of the liability for this idea.)

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 12, 2014

Last week it was really cold and it snowed. Then it got warmer and it rained.

I really don’t want to talk about it anymore….

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 5, 2014

Sorry Governor Snyder, but I have to call bullshit on this one. Hiding the names of contributors to issue ads is a defense of the first amendment? Really? This country was quite literally founded on the idea of full accountability and disclosure on issues. The signers of the Declaration of Independence did not hide behind a made-up organization name. They used their own names. And while they too risked the harassment of the bloggers of their day (publishers of pamphlets and placards), they also risked some very real medieval punishments for treason: hanging, beheading, drawn and quartered, etc. So simply identifying yourself when you pay to have an ad run seems pretty patriotic, don’t you think? Well, that’s my opinion. If you have a problem with that, there’s my name, email address, Twitter account, and picture right there.