The Cartoon

Stupid questions and how NOT to roll your eyes

God recently asked his Twitter followers “What is the worst thing I ever created?” The most common response was, “You,” (meaning god, of course) but “Donald” ran a strong second. (Rogue legos and Chia Pets were a couple of outlier responses, to which I say, What did Chia pets ever do to you?”)

I mean, come on!

Donald wasn’t created in an instant, however. He is a creature constructed over decades by countless numbers of people. In his current incarnation as leader of and mirror to the Republican Party (the latter, I would argue, is possibly his only valuable function), he is being allowed to continue to wreak havoc and wield influence.*

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This is how I imagined the process of Donald’s influence unfolding while I was in the thick of writing my first book, Too Much and Never Enough:

And, no, I don’t know why I didn’t become a professional artist. But much more importantly, the answer to the question, “Will this cartoon be available on a tote-bag or a t-shirt someday,” is . . . yes!

At the time of writing the cartoon, however, I was more optimistic than I am now (the conclusion notwithstanding). People continue to reveal themselves to be worse than I wanted to give them credit for and the mainstream media continue not to learn from their past mistakes. As we stare down the barrel of autocracy and creeping fascism, this becomes an increasingly serious problem.

In order to make sense of what we’re waking up to at the beginning of every week I think it will be useful to look back at what happened in the week that just passed. That way we can assess (and be prepared for) the impact those events might have on what’s coming. I also want to highlight recent stories that, though vitally important to our democracy and its citizenry, seem to have dropped out of sight.

THE LOOK BACK

There are two trials going on right now that have as defendants white men: First, William "Roddie" Bryan, Travis McMichael and Gregory McMichael in Georgia who (allegedly) murdered Ahmaud Arbery,  who was jogging while black; second, Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin, who (allegedly) murdered Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum while they were protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times by a police officer.

In the Arbery trial we’ve been treated to the overt racism of the defense attorney who believes that having black people—especially “pastors” like Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson—in the courtroom to support Mr. Arbery’s family is somehow “intimidating” to the jury; the contention that one of the defendants had an “instinct” that Mr. Arbery had done something wrong and therefore believed the lynching was justified; and the judge’s agreeing with prosecutors that “there appears to be intentional discrimination” in jury selection, although he declined to do anything about it.

Shockingly, or perhaps not, this all seems quite tame compared to the utter outrageousness of what’s going on in the Rittenhouse trial. Judge Bruce Schroeder disallowed letting prosecutors call the murder victims “victims” but had no problem with the defense team’s calling them “looters” or “rioters” or “arsonists;” his ring tone is the same song Donald uses to open his rallies; he does not understand how technology works which, not surprisingly, will be to the prosecution’s disadvantage; and, proving that he is approaching this trial with the seriousness it deserves, he was caught perusing a cookie catalog. To be fair, Christmas is just around the corner.

All signs suggest the verdict will be a hideous boost to Rittenhouse  and his despicable allies (like the Proud Boys, Ricky Schroeder, and virtually every elected Republican), while also making it open season for what Josh Marshall, at the essential Talking Points Memo, calls "right wing murder safaris." Unfortunately, judges like Schroeder are likely more often the rule rather than the exception. We just don’t get to see video proving it very often.

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I need to keep this one short. I’m traveling to Amsterdam on Wednesday and, because I’ve completely forgotten how to prepare for a trip, everything is taking longer than usual. See you soon!

*N.B.—Shortly after my new book, The Reckoning, was published, I appeared on “Morning Joe” (for likely the first and last time) and was asked, “By continuing to talk about Donald, aren’t you keeping him relevant.” Luckily I had recently watched a Tracey Ullman video about the importance of not rolling your eyes when somebody asks you a ridiculous question. First of all, I didn’t realize I had the power to keep anybody relevant. Secondly, The Reckoning isn’t about Donald, at least not directly, but he kind of did spend four years doing his best to destroy our country so I couldn’t exactly ignore him or his administration completely. (I suppose it’s always good to know when somebody who is interviewing you about a book you just published hasn’t even read the jacket flap.) Nobody wants Donald to slip into obscurity more than I do but the short answer to the ridiculous question is that we ignore him at our peril. The longer answer will continue to unfold over the next three years.