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It’s difficult to have Republican friends these days

I certainly used to have Republican friends. In fact, I even voted for Republicans in the past. Why, in the 90s, I even voted for William Weld for Governor of Massachusetts because he was (believe it or not) more liberal than the Democrat who was running.

Hard to believe that there used to be liberal Republicans as well as conservative Democrats.

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cartoon by David Horsey

But thanks to gerrymandering, Fox News, and Citizen’s United, those days are gone. The GOP has gone farther right than anyone would have ever expected and the Democrats have moved right with them.

Issues that would have been considered moderate when I was younger are now thought of as radical liberal ideas. Just look at Europe, Canada, and Australia for examples. Their “conservatives” would be liberals here in America. It’s not that the rest of the world has moved to the left so much as we have gone so far off to the right as to be unrecognizable to the rest of the civilized world.

Many of my more reasonable conservative friends no longer call themselves Republicans, because even they see that it has gotten out of control. How can they support a party that embraces hatred, bigotry, homophobia? How can they support a party that decries diplomacy, that promotes huge deficits, that wants to install a Christian theocracy? How can they support such a childish, incompetent President?

And that’s why I just cannot honestly call Republicans “friends” any more. It’s why I won’t vote for any Republican, even if it’s just for dog catcher. Unless you convince me that you are trying your best to change the party and rid it of Trump and the alt-right, I have to assume that you approve of what the party is doing.

And if you approve of the party that only cares about rich, white, straight, Christian men; that does not speak out against nazis marching in our streets; that thinks guns are more important than lives; that wants to take away the rights of non-Christians — then I’m not sure how we can be friends.

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Editorial cartoon: Forces of Tyranny

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Matt Davies

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GOP on guns: Let’s try doing nothing. Maybe that will work

GOP: Mental illness is the problem, not guns.

Dems: Women have mental illnesses in the same percentages as men, but only men do these mass shootings.

GOP: Look! a squirrel!squirrel

Later:

GOP: Mental illness is the problem. We should be addressing that instead. By the way, we’ve closed all the mental facilities, defunded money for them, and removed “mental health” from health insurance coverage. Oh, and also made it easier for the mentally ill to get guns.

Mental illness affects people all over the world. Yet, for some reason, the rest of the world doesn’t have these things happen every few weeks. Hmm, what’s the difference? What is it about America that gives us gun death numbers that dwarf all other civilized countries?  Could it be … guns?

Somehow, the gun lovers are convinced that since we can’t stop all gun violence, we shouldn’t do anything at all.

GOP: “Terrorists have used planes to attack us! Quick, let’s make everyone take off their shoes, go through huge searches, stop them from bringing toothpaste on board, and be subject to a ‘no flight’ list of those suspected!”

“Guns have killed thousands each year unnecessarily! Too bad there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it.”

Well, we can do something about it. Every country that has has seen a huge drop in violent gun deaths. Every state that has discovered that their violent crime decreased as well. Will this stop all gun deaths? Of course not, any more than laws against drunk driving have stopped all drunk drivers. But the laws certainly have reduced the amount of accidents on the road.

“Let’s give up and not do anything to solve this problem” seems to be the most unAmerican thing you can say.

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Editorial cartoon: Taking a knee

wasserman

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Take a knee protests are not anti-veteran

If you think these protests are against veterans, you’re either (a) willfully misinformed or (b) aware that they’re not but are claiming they are so you can dismiss them.

Neither option is admirable.

Denver Broncos versus the Buffalo Bills

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Editorial cartoon: A true patriot

Tom the Dancing Bug

Ruben Bolling

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Against Protests? Why do you hate America so?

Football players are taking a knee today to protest the way Trump calls one of their own a “son of a bitch” for protesting.

And I’m very sad that some of my friends apparently think these protests are unAmerican. “Love it or leave it!” they scream.

Protesting is one of the things that we can do in America. It’s so American, it’s guaranteed to us in the very first Amendment.9e1fc035aa6110f48ac4e380d92a7adf

Disagreeing with the point of the protest — that’s fine. That’s your right under that same 1st Amendment. But saying they shouldn’t protest at all (or they should protest somewhere else, where we can’t see it and where it has no affect)? Why do you hate America so?

Look, I disagreed completely with the Charlottesville protesters, but I never said they should not have the right to do so.

These protests make people mad. But protests are supposed to make you upset and uncomfortable. They’re meaningless otherwise.

The whole point of a protest is to make people uncomfortable and to make them think. People complained when blacks sat at the white lunch counters, too or when Americans dressed as Indians and threw tea in the harbor.

Also, I can’t help but notice that these very same people didn’t say a word about nazis protesting in Charlottesville. “Very fine people,” according to Trump.

Disagree with what they are protesting, sure — but to say they shouldn’t? That’s unAmerican.

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Editorial cartoon: Blind and dumb

Capture

Clay Bennett

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We have the money!

The United States is the richest damn country on the planet. We can afford it. 

Republicans constantly complain that we can’t afford health care coverage for all, or dozens of other programs that we, the people, could use to make our lives better. Yet somehow they always find money for the things they want…uncle sam money

One estimate says that if we had a national health care program, it would cost $600 billion. Wow! That’s a lot of money! “We could never afford that!” say Republicans.  (Oh, in a completely unrelated matter, here’s an article about how Republicans today passed a bill giving the military $700 billion this year.)

We apparently have an infinite budget when it comes to defending Americans against foreign attacks, but a minor one for protecting us against illness and disease.

Another study shows that if we just raised taxes on the super-wealthy back to levels we had under President Eisenhower, we’d gain $276 billion a year right there.

The fact is that we have the money — we’re like a family that has said, “Sorry, kids, we can’t afford to get your teeth fixed because we have spent all our money on these 30 cars we don’t need and gave the rest to your rich uncle.”

 

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Editorial cartoon: Unqualified?

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Pat Bagley