Toons of Thankfulness and Praise

I hope you have saved some room for some leftover Thanksgiving cartoons today. Our Graphical History Tour has whipped up a tasty dish from the editorial and comic pages of 1924.

"Mr. Coolidge Breaks His Silence" by T.H. Webster for N.Y. World's Press Pub. Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Calvin Coolidge, in keeping with longstanding tradition, officially proclaimed that year's national day of Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27, the last Thursday of the month. The troubled tom in T.H. Webster's cartoon would have waited in vain for a presidential pardon to save him from the butcher's axe.

The tradition of presidents pardoning a turkey or two at Thanksgiving was apparently inaugurated by John F. Kennedy (reports of meleagristic pardons by Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman are not supported by presidential records). The first official presidential pardon granted to a turkey was by George H.W. Bush in 1989.

"If We All Don't Get Our Share This Year It Won't Be Because the Turkey Isn't Big Enough" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 27, 1924

Prosperity Triumphant was the theme of editorial cartoons in many a Thanksgiving Day newspaper in 1924. It was the midpoint of the Roaring ’20's, of course. The stock market was booming, employers were hiring, speakeasies were jumping, and flappers were, uh, flapping.

"We Have with Us Today" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 27, 1924

Republican-leaning editorial cartoonists offered plenty of cartoons for the day crowing that Americans ought to be thankful to reelected President Calvin Coolidge for the apparently robust economy everyone was enjoying. 

"Even They Have Something to Be Thankful For" by Clifford Berryman in Washington Evening Star, Nov. 27, 1924

Democrats and Progressives, on the other hand, were still eating crow, and the editorial cartoonists who had advocated the election of John Davis or Robert LaFollette shied away from political ruminations for the holiday.

The Gumps by Sidney Smith for Chicago Tribune Service, Nov. 27, 1924

Speaking of unsuccessful presidential candidates: Andy Gump — whose campaign manager had neglected to file Gump's candidacy — used the holiday to wax philosophical about his loss.

"Me and Mine" by Clare Briggs for N.Y. Tribune Co., Nov. 27, 1924

Elsewhere on the comics page, even in 1924, one did not necessarily head home for the holidays. The ladies in Clare Briggs's cartoon agreed to disagree over the relative merits of a home-cooked meal and not having to clean up after one.

"Cap Stubbs" by Edwina Dunn for George Matthew Adams Service, Nov. 27, 1924

It has been a long time since our tour has checked in on one of the very few female comic strip artists of the 1920's, so here is Edwina Dunn, presenting her titular "Cap" Stubbs with one of his typical conundra.

"Your Own Nightmare" by Jim Ring in Washington Times, Nov. 27, 1924

Returning to the editorial page: I guess Jim Ring didn't particularly care for the Thanksgiving holiday. Or perhaps being called upon to draw something for the Washington Times editorial page at the last minute because the editors or publisher there didn't care for whatever it was that their usual cartoonist, T.E. Powers, had offered them for the day.

"And Here's Another Problem" by John Knott in Dallas Morning News, ca. Nov. 26, 1924

As if Jim Ring hadn't burdened you with enough Thanksgiving nightmares, along came John Knott to remind us that it's time to flip the page on the calendar.

So therefore we bid you and yule a fond au revoir, a happy post-Thanksgiving, a toilichte St. Andrew's Day, and a merry month to come.

Gobble fa la la: la la la la!

Q Toon: Bubble, Bubble, Toilet Trouble

Delaware, the First State in the Union, is now also the First State in the Union Represented by a Transgender American.

Democrat Sarah McBride, whose deadname is Nunnoyer Dambizness, won election as the state's one and only Representative in the 119th Congress, and Republican panties immediately entered into wad mode. South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace led the hue and cry that Congresswoman-elect McBride would not be welcome in women's rest rooms anywhere in the Capitol building.

Speaker Mike Johnson, whose duties include assigning toilet stalls, readily acquiesced to Mace's demands, publishing a new rule that lavatory use must align with one's gender as assigned at birth, no matter what changes may have taken place in the meantime. His order gently suggested that members can avail themselves of the personal lavatory facilities in their own offices; and McBride has accepted the crapper command calmly and professionally.

It may not have occurred to the Transphobic Caucus that not all transgender persons have transitioned from male to female. There are some people who have found their peace transitioning in the opposite direction. While none of those persons have yet been elected to Congress, I expect that Congresswoman Mace will suffer advanced conniptions if she ever hears that Chaz Bono has come to lobby the legislature after a heavy lunch.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi might offer that Mace's complaints are much ado about chicken shit. We all remember how much deference the Trumpster mob showed to female sensitivities when they came to lobby Capitol Hill to overturn the 2020 election on 1/6.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Most Americans either have extra company this week, or they are the extra company this week. 

We cartoonists are no exception, so I'll very likely be off my usual schedule here at the blog. 

But have no fear; there will be a new cartoon.

Coping With Loss

I've made as a regular feature of these Graphical History Tours digging up cartoons that I had drawn 40, 30, 20, and 10 years earlier, give or take a week or two. That will be the theme for today, and the good news is that means there will be no cartoons about the lying sack of shite about to infest the Oval Office next January.

The bad news is that starting in 1984, elections in years ending in a four somehow seem to have all favored Republicans, and that is what each of these cartoons will be about.

in UW-P Ranger, Somers Wis., Nov. 29, 1984

That's a completely unrecognizable Newt Gingrich (R-GA) in the center of this cartoon from November of 1984. Gingrich's suburban Atlanta district had just reelected him to a fourth term in Congress, where he was founder of the "Conservative Opportunity Society." Ronald Reagan embraced the ideas of these previously obscure House members in his reelection campaign. 

It was easier to find pictures of former football star Jack Kemp (R-NY) and thus easier to come up with a good caricature. I'm not sure whether the third shoe salesman was intended to be any specific congressman.

in UWM Post, Milwaukee, Nov. 10, 1994

Ten years later, Gingrich’s hair had gone completely white, and I was having plenty of practice honing my caricature of the chief architect of Republicans’ “Contract With America.” The GOP had successfully campaigned on its promise to cut taxes now and to pass a constitutional amendment requiring balanced budgets in the future— the failure of Supply Side economics to date notwithstanding.

Q Syndicate, Nov. 2004

George Dubya Bush's reelection campaign in 2004 rested heavily on post-9/11 jingoism, but also on Republican Party promises to fight back against the homosexual menace. 

If any significant fraction of the liberals, LGBTQ+s, and feminists who have vowed to move to Canada because of an incoming Republican administration had ever carried through with it, Justin Trudeau would be cruising to another term in office with a solid parliamentary majority to back him up.

Instead, we have for the most part stayed here on our side of the line, fought for our right to marry, and left Mr. Trudeau desperately trying to salvage his rickety coalition government in a gale force blizzard.

Q Syndicate, Nov., 2014

Equal marriage rights were still tantalizingly beyond the reach for many of us in November of 2014. In Michigan, where Q Syndicate is based, adoptive parents April DeBoer and Jayne Rouse had sued as a couple for the right to adopt each other's children. The Sixth Circuit Court overturned lower court rulings that had favored DeBoer and Rouse, ruling instead that marriage was reserved for couples who might bear children unintentionally.

The ruling was a setback for same-sex couples with children in Michigan and other states covered by the Sixth Circuit (Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee).

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage the following year in Obergefell v. Hodges. 

For now. The Court now doesn’t think highly of marriage equality. Or Obergefell. Or stare decisis.

Toon: Who Laughs Last

I left this cartoon as somewhat of a rough sketch because the idea reminded me too much of a cartoon Pat Oliphant once did of House Speaker Tip O'Neil in the 1980's. In the last month, I've posted extra cartoons aping the great cartoonists David Low and Thomas Nast. Did I really need to add another update of someone else's work?

Well, as I commented when I thanked Mike Peterson for citing yesterday's Matt Gaetz cartoon, Gaetz might be a thoroughly reprehensible excuse for a human being, but he is kind of fun to draw — so here's the cartoon anyway.

With apologies to Pat Oliphant, and to any of my colleagues who had the same idea this morning.

Q Toon: Barbarians Matt the Gaetz

Our pussy-grabbing President-reelect has, to Republicans' great surprise, named Matt Gaetz, the newly resigned Congresssleazeball from Florida, to be the highest law enforcement official in the land in his even-more-corrupt-than-the-first second administration.

Gaetz has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for the past three years over allegations of his drug-fueled sex parties with under-age girls. Republicans in Congress have reported that he showed them photographs of the girls he'd had sex with; but he went from boasting of his exploits to throwing roadblocks in front of the Ethics Committee's inquiry, including taking down Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy when McCarthy wouldn't quash the investigation for him.

His one remaining friend in the caucus, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Chastity Beltway), has proved more amenable, vowing to bury the committee's findings on the grounds that Gaetz resigned just as the committee was finally ready to go public. Johnson says it's because Gaetz is now just a private citizen.

Like Hunter Biden.

Even some of Trump's most slavish defenders are trying to convince themselves that Gaetz's nomination is somehow "not serious," or intended as a feint to get someone slightly less outrageous into the job. If so, Gary’s is one of many not-serious nominees. 

The primary experience Trump is looking for as he assembles his Cabinet of Dr. Tarr & Professor Fether is TV screen time: a Saturday morning Fox Noise host for Defense (the sexual assault allegations against him are apparently a bonus); a syndicated snake oil salesman to run Medicare and Medicaid; a pro wrestling personality for Education; and a 1997 contestant on Real World Boston for Transportation. Trump is still trying to choose between the My Pillow Guy and the Oxy Clean Guy which one gets Commerce which one gets Labor.

The more plum position goes to the Guy with the more sexual misconduct accusations.

Toon: Circle Joke

If you spend a lot of time watching cable TV news, first of all, do yourself a favor and stop; and second of all, you will have heard a variety of pundits, academics, and people of the mistaken belief that they should run for president someday, who are weighing in on Why Kamala Harris Lost The Election.

One of the leading theories is that President Joe Biden and those closest to him handicapped her by running for reelection in spite of mounting evidence that his mental acuity had begun to decline. Many of us, myself included, had voted for him in 2020 on the presumption that at 77, he planned to serve one term to repair the damage left behind by The Corrupt Trump administration, then hand leadership of the party over to someone younger.

Instead, he decided to run for reelection, as he put it, "to finish the job."

Which is ridiculous.

The presidency is not a job you're supposed to "finish." Each president does what he or (someday) she can, and turns it over to the next person. The job is never finished until the Republic is.

Donald Berzelius Trump, I fear, may "finish the job."

Anyway, my worry back when Biden announced his 2024 candidacy was that he didn't have confidence that Vice President Kamala Harris was up to taking over the job from him. Or that a Democratic Party primary battle would leave its victor hobbled by constituencies feeling that they were denied their due, or ignored, or unwelcome. Or, in the absence of a primary battle, ditto.

As things have turned out, plenty of Democratic constituencies are complaining about being denied their due, ignored, or unwelcome anyway. The Left complains that Harris tacked to the center instead of wholeheartedly campaigning on their agenda. The Centrists complain that Harris embraced "wokism" and transgender rights and people who say "Latinx."

I saw a scholar on The Daily Show this week promoting his election post-mortem book, arguing to Jon Stewart that Democrats were doomed by their embrace of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). He wasn't saying that Democrats should join Republicans in promoting Uniformity, Inequity, and Exclusion; just that they should call DEI something else — as if the right-wing propaganda machine wouldn't devote itself to turning the new name into a dirty word.

Now, I suppose that had Harris listened to the Palestinian rights crowd and condemned Netanyahu's genocidal war in Gaza, it might have been enough to get her over the finish line in Michigan. But it wouldn't have made the difference in any of the other "blue wall" swing states. Vowing to send undocumented alien drug dealers to Guantanamo might have gained her Arizona.

On the other hand, those moves might have helped about as much as affecting a southern drawl helped her in Georgia and North Carolina.

No Thanks, I've Had Enough

 

This Week's Sneak Peek

I should have been thinking of Thanksgiving cartoons (Hey! How 'bout drawing someone in the news as a turkey?), or even something for World AIDS Day.

But this guy is everywhere. A festering cancer that has spread itself throughout the entire lymphatic system of the body politic. A ringing tinnitus that robs you of sleep at night and obsesses your thoughts all day. 

A malevolent poltergeist destined to haunt us long after that blessed day when we mistakenly think he's finally gone.

What Kind of Nation Elects a Fascist?

The answer may depress you.

I'll give you a hint: not a great one.

for Q Syndicate, Oct. 2004

Today's Graphical History Tour kicks off with a cartoon I drew 20 years ago when George W. Bush was sailing on a swiftboat to reelection. It expressed my feelings about his GOProud supporters then, and seems a propos to the several demographics who, having witnessed the shitshow that was Donald Berzelius Trump's first term, decided to ask for another.

Rather than the usual recap of my cartoons from 40, 30, 20, and 10 years ago, I feel that I just can't ignore the foreboding of what's in store during the next four.

When the outcome of last week's election could no longer be denied, I changed my personal Facebook photo, which had been of my "I Voted Today" sticker and buttons for three of the people I voted for, to this cartoon that I had drawn the first time our Electoral College handed the nation over to Donald Trump:

for Q Syndicate, November, 2016

I soon learned that my esteemed colleague, Jack Ohman, had just published an extremely similar cartoon, based on the same Bill Mauldin classic that had inspired mine.

That is what we in the editorial cartoon biz call a "Yahtzee." Jack and I independently came up with the same idea, based on the same subject matter familiar to both of us, to express the same reaction to (more or less) the same news event. Or, in this case, the recrudescence of the same news event eight years later.

To be quite honest, however, neither of our Lincoln Memorial Barfing cartoons quite capture my reaction this time around. The election of Trump for a second reich, this time with the support of an actual majority of my fellow Americans, feels more like seeing a dog eating its own vomit.

I’m not drawing that cartoon. 

Pat Bagley drew a slightly more sanitized version of that sort of idea anyway, and it was still too risqué for his editors at the Salt Lake Tribune. I don't like to swipe my colleagues' work here, but I think you need to see what I’m talking about.

"Lap Lap Lap..." by Pat Bagley for Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 9, 2024

At this point, we’ve moved on from the initial shock and horror of Trump’s election, to the ever-accumulating nausea and dread of one outrageous cabinet appointment after another to the impending cabinet of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

I tried warning everyone about it with last week’s Graphical History Tour, but obviously, I wasn’t forceful enough. 

I didn't include this next cartoon last week lest it prove prophetic:

January, 2021

Perhaps I should have.

It has been noted that if you've ever wondered what you would have done when the Nazis took over Germany, congratulations, you're doing it now.

"'De Notenkraker' Een Hitler vanu Speculaies" by George van Raemdocnk in De Notenkraker, Amsterdam, ca. February, 1933. My rough translation.

Having seen the cartoons of Ben Garrison, Chip Bok, Gary Varvel, Henry Payne, and others gloating over the November 5 results, I'd suggest my colleagues substitute the word "drawing" for "doing."

Since this post is supposed to be about history, here's a little taste of what Germany's cartoonists were drawing when Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933.

"Die Meistersinger (Dritter Aufzug) by Werner Hahmann in Kladderadatsch, Berlin, Feb. 12, 1933

The Garrison types were in charge at the Berlin satirical weekly Kladderadatsch, where Hitler's rise to power was greeted with the above paraphrase of the poet Hans Sachs, a leading character in Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. (February, 1933 happened to be the 50th anniversary of Wagner's death, so there were a number of cartoons referencing the composer at the time.)

"Immer Sein Kampf..." by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 5, 1933

Simplicissimus, published in Munich since 1896, was a center-left counterpart to Berlin's Kladderadatsch. Its satire became less pointed during The Great War, under pressure to be patriotic; it was no friend of the Nazis during the Weimar period, however.

I don't know whether the date on their February 5, 1933 issue is when it hit the newsstands, or the date until which it was intended to remain on the newsstands, but the cover cartoon's intention was clearly to mock the prospect of a Hitler chancellorship on the strength of a bunch of hayseeds from the Teutoburg forest area.

"Zur Verfassung des Deutschen Reiches" by Karl Arnold in Simplicissimus, Stuttgart, March 12, 1933

Shortly after Hitler's rise to power, Simplicissimus had found it necessary to decamp from Munich to Stuttgart.

"Wagner in Walhall" by Thomas Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, February 12, 1933

Having already spent time in prison for publishing a cartoon critical of Kaiser Wilhelm in 1898, editor Thomas Theodor Heine appears to have shied away from satire targeting individual politicians. I don't detect a political subtext in his tribute to Wagner; yet Heine still had commentary to offer about the new government's plans to fix the German economy.

"Vierjahresplan" by Th. Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Munich, Feb. 26, 1933

Within months, Heine, a Jew, was ousted from the magazine and would flee to Czechoslovakia. When that, too, proved unsafe, he moved to Norway, and finally to Sweden, where he died in 1948. His last cartoon in Simplicissimus was in the April 1, 1933 edition, under the appropriate title, "Epilogue." 

"Epilog" by Th. Th. Heine in Simplicissimus, Stuttgart, April 1, 1933

Q Toon: It's Only a Day Away

It’s gonna be a rough four years — more than four, from what plans were already seeing of Republican plans to circumvent and stifle democratic norms and safeguards.

Let me just say here that I'm aware that some people are tired of politics, politics, politics. I get it. The 2024 election in this country went on too loud and too long, and only partly thanks to all those Trumpsters who have been flying their Trump flags in front of their house and from the back of their pick-up trucks non-stop for the past eight or nine years.

But there is a guy in my age cohort whose TikTok video explained succinctly what those of us who care about democracy are going through right now. America has spoken loudly and clearly that all the values we were taught to live by since we were kids belong in the garbage. The role model they want to hold up for their children is a lying, cheating, grifting, self-centered, infantile, spiteful, hateful, racist, sexist, fascist, financial ignoramus without one single redeeming social trait.

Who, in the words of the guy he wants for his next Secretary of State, had he not inherited a fortune from his old man, would be selling counterfeit gold watches on the street.

By the way, if you're in the market for those gold watches and tennis shoes he's been hawking on Trump Social, better get 'em now before the tariffs kick in.

Meanwhile, if America has decided to trade all those virtuous values I grew up with for a cheaper carton of eggs, I'm sorry, folks.

No deal.

This Week's Sneak Peek

This guy gave me a host of problems this week.

Leo the Lib and MAGA Max make a return this week, and the first problem I ran into was that I haven't drawn Leo from this angle before. Trying to make him recognizable, I cluttered my drawing board with an awful lot of eraser dust. Eventually, I had a face that was acceptable.

But I wasn't getting having him slumped in his chair right. I'm still not satisfied with this.

Then, when I had the cartoon scanned and transferred to my computer screen, I realized that he was way, way out of perspective. I clipped the image above and moved it to a better location in the cartoon, then erased the portions that would be covered by the people in the foreground.

So far, so good.

But the setting required lots of people in the background, too, and now there was a big gap in the space where Leo used to be. The rest of a table needed to be filled in, as well.

Photoshop does a lot of things really well, from filling in colors, shading, and centering text. But it's not designed for drawing lines, especially straight ones. It's like performing surgery with a bowling ball and oven mitts.

So I'm not happy with what went out for syndication today, but deadlines are deadlines. I'm going to try fixing what I can the old-fashioned way this week, though.

When the Nation Kept Its Cool

The American people spoke loudly and clearly on Election Day, November 4, 1924.

"The Avalanche" by Nelson Harding in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Nov. 5, 1924

The outcome wasn't even close. Incumbent President Calvin Coolidge garnered 54% of the popular vote to John W. Davis's 29% and Robert LaFollette's 17%. The Electoral College map was just as lop-sided; Davis won only Oklahoma and the states of the Confederacy minus Kentucky; Coolidge won 382 Electoral College votes from almost everywhere else.

"Touchdown, Game's All Over" by J.N. "Ding" Darling in Des Moines Register, Nov. 5, 1924

Darling, or whoever wrote the headline for his morning after cartoon, didn't understand football very well if he thought that it only takes one touchdown to win a football game.

Or perhaps he was predicting the current overtime rules.

"They Still Have the Wagon" by J.N. "Ding" Darling for Register and Tribune Syndicate, Nov. 5, 1924

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial attempted to explain the Coolidge landslide, placing some of the blame on the ridiculously long nomination fight at that summer's Democratic Party convention:

"The selection of [Charles] Bryan [as vice presidential nominee] aroused all the opposition to William J. Bryan and gave the Republicans the opportunity to make Bryan, instead of Davis, the target of attack. The Bryan nomination started the drive of the business element into the Coolidge camp.

"The La Follette movement completed the drive. It turned out to be a futile thing, but it served as a red menace to turn the drift of business towards Coolidge and Dawes into a panic.

"The La Follette ticket, which drove the business element to Coolidge, drew large elements of the labor vote from the support of Davis. The labor vote that it did not draw it confused and disorganized. ...

"The Ku Klux Klan helped the Republican ticket effectively. Democratic klansmen in every state knifed Mr. Davis. The McAdoo followers, who were opposed to the naming of the klan [in the party platform] and bitterly disappointed by the defeat of McAdoo, were resentful, if not bitterly hostile, to the Democratic candidate."

"I've Just Begun to Fight" by Clifford Berryman in Washington (DC) Evening Star, Nov. 6, 1924

In his syndicated cartoon, Darling agreed with the Post-Dispatch editorialists as far as attributing some of Davis's loss to Sen. Robert LaFollette; Berryman pointed out, however, that LaFollette came out of the election with only the Electoral College votes of his home state.

"Hardly So Much as a Grease Spot Left" by William Hanny in Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 6, 1924

Nevertheless, LaFollette led the vote in several counties in midwestern, plains, and west coast states. In statewide results, he came in second, ahead of Davis, in California, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Oregon, Wyoming, and Washington state. 

"I Thought It Was a Whale" by James "Hal" Donahey in Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nov. 5, 1924

Had their 74 electoral college votes gone to Davis (in no state in which LaFollette came in third was his total more than the difference between the Republican and Democratic totals), it still wouldn't have been enough to tip the election away from Coolidge.

Incidentally, Cleveland Plain Dealer front-page cartoonist Hal Donahey's brother Alvin won reelection as Governor of Ohio. Hal had drawn several cartoons boosting Alvin's campaign and lambasting his Democratic opponent, but restrained himself from drawing a cartoon to crow about Alvin's victory.

As for Democratic- and Progressive-leaning cartoonists, most turned in "Ain't We Glad It's Over" cartoons for the day after the election and quickly moved on to other topics. One exception was Thomas E. Powers.

"I See by the Papers" by T.E. Powers for Star Co., ca. Nov. 7, 1924

"I See by the Papers" was one of Powers's regular features for William Randolph Hearst's Star Company, in which he typically whipped off three to six mini-cartoons on topics of the day. Powers chose not to dismiss the election results as quickly as some other critics of the Republican Party, and he here took note that the stock market reacted enthusiastically to Coolidge's election.

"Out of the Workers' Reach" by O.P. Williams for Star Co., Nov., 1924

Others in Hearst's stable took a more sour grapes view of the stock market delirium. 

20-20 hindsight affords us the knowledge that before long, the stock market balloon would burst. By then, however, Coolidge would have retired to Northampton to write his memoirs.

"The Republicans Win" by J.P. Alley in Memphis Commercial Appeal, Nov. 5, 1924

Down in Dixieland, James Alley was another disappointed Democrat.

Up north of the border, Montreal Star cartoonist Arthur Racey offered his own explanation of Coolidge's victory, and the only one of these cartoons that got a chuckle from me during this bleakest of weeks:

"The Sphinx" by Arthur G. Racey in Montreal Star, Nov. 5

Before we leave the 1924 election behind, there is one more third-party candidate to consider.

Loyal visitors to this blog will recall that two years earlier, Sydney Smith's cartoon character Andy Gump was elected to Congress (at least in the comic strip) but lost to his rival in a recount. In 1924, Gump set his sights on the highest office in the land.

"The Gumps" by Sydney Smith for Chicago Tribune Syndicate, Nov. 5, 1924

This time around, he should have kept a closer watch on his campaign manager.

Democracy Dies

P.S.: Thanks a lot, Bezos.

P.P.S.: If you're looking for this week's cartoon cartoon, I posted it last night, while there was still a faint glimmer of light amid the gathering gloom.

Q Toon: Status Quo Anti

Well, folks, this is my gamble on Sunday on a cartoon idea that I thought would still be relevant after Tuesday.

I could have been delightfully wrong, I suppose. A blue wave could have swept all the transphobes out of office on Tuesday. But as our experience in Wisconsin has shown, they would still be able to wreak all sorts of mischief on their way out the door. Including refusing to leave.

Even a cartoon celebrating the end of instant fund-raising messages from the political parties and candidates could have gone awry.  All it would have taken would be for there to be some run-off election needed somewhere that would tip the balance of the House or Senate or governorship or state legislature, as Georgia foisted on us all the last two elections.

As I noted in Monday's sneak peek, we've had two presidential elections in the 2000's in which the outcome was still uncertain when Wednesday morning's newspapers went to press. We are now told to expect that to be the norm (and not just because Wednesday morning's newspapers are printed a couple hundred miles away these days).

One of my cartooning colleagues posted on Facebook the other day that the editor of one of his subscribing publications had asked him to supply them with some cartoons about something other than the election. It's a reasonable sounding request; nobody wants to go to print with this year's DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.

Or Harry Murphy's cartoon congratulating President-elect Charles Evans Hughes.

But my colleague said no. He's not the type to draw cartoons about sports scores or how sad it is that there was flooding in Valencia — although fresh carnage in Gaza or Lebanon might have piqued his interest. The guy has managed to crank out a cartoon every day almost without fail for several years now.

The fact is that there is very little else to draw editorial cartoons about in this country this week. Even our foreign co-workers appear to be fixated on our presidential election.

Anyway, I've chosen to publish this post in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, regardless of whether we know for sure who the next President of the United States is or not.

And, of course, whether Donald The Terrible and all those Republican House and Senate candidates are able to carry out their campaign promises to criminalize and persecute transgender Americans and their families.