I’m generally against “bothsidesism,” but one thing I believe conservatives and liberals have in common in the U.S.: We both find the other side’s choices completely, utterly incomprehensible.
And nothing is harder to comprehend, in the lefty (a.k.a. my) mindset, then why so many Americans support goddamn fucking Donald Trump. He’s lost some supporters, to be sure, but he seems to have a solid core of followers who will not be shaken off, no matter what he says or does. Even Trump has sometimes seemed impressed by his followers’ loyalty, famously joking, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.”
Nearly all of the reasons given in this cartoon – although I’ve written them in an exaggerated and mocking way – are real reasons I’ve seen Trump supporters give. The exception is the white supremacy panel – I’ve never seen someone outright admit that white identity politics is why they support Trump. But research shows it’s a major factor.
It’s not the deepest cartoon I’ve ever done, but it’s always fun to draw one of my “Nine Jerks” cartoons (as Becky calls them). Not needing to keep characters or settings consistent from panel to panel is so relaxing and frankly makes it faster, making it practical to do nine panels instead of my usual four. And drawing over-the-top angry expressions never fails to be fun.
Also, lots of room for chicken fat, even though it slows me down. Doing the chicken fat has added a lot to my enjoyment of my work.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has nine panels.
PANEL 1
A grinning man stands in his living room.
MAN: That TV Star billionaire son of a billionaire is an underdog like me!
PANEL 2
A woman standing behind a fence gestures at her phone.
WOMAN: Trump kills random Venezuelans on boats with no trial or evidence… But Democrats seem smug, which is much worse.
PANEL 3
A man in a suit is overcome with fury and shouting.
MAN: Because filthy pet-eating invaders are poisoning America with their dirty blood! (But I’ve got nothing against immigrants).
PANEL 4
A man in a compound surrounded by barbed wire hugs a gigantic gun and yells.
MAN: Because Democrats wanna take our guns!
PANEL 5
This central panel contains the title, “Reasons To Support Trump.” Below that, a nice looking smiling woman talks, and in the background a Klansman adds something.
WOMAN: Not because I’m a closet white supremacist! Heck no!
KLANSMAN: Same!
PANEL 6
A housewife in an apron, surrounded by children, happily talks.
HOUSEWIFE: I like that the President has traditional family values! Like Donald with Ivana Marla Melania.
PANEL 7
A man looks up from reading a newspaper.
MAN: Because Trump is fighting “cancel culture” by getting people we don’t like fired or deported!
PANEL 8
A man in a suit gestures towards a teacher in the background, who looks indignant.
MAN: Because woke “teachers” indoctrinate our kids into being trans!
TEACHER (thought): Yeah, right. I can’t even get them to use deodorant.
PANEL 9
An woman in her living room talks to us angrily.
WOMAN: Liberals are evil terrorist loving pathetic loser cucks who hate freedom! And they say such mean things about Trump!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken Fat” is long-dormant cartoonist speak for irrelevant details we stick in because it amuses us.
Panel 1: Igor, Marty Feldman’s Young Frankenstein character, is peering in the window. (He’s drawn in black and white, like the film). There’s a framed picture of Montgomery Burns on the wall. The man’s sports shirt says “42,” a reference to the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novels.
Panel 2: A flyer taped to the tree says “WANTED: A poem as lovely as this tree. Contact Joyce.” A groundhog wearing a top hat and a scarf has popped out from the ground.
Panel 4: A poster taped to the wall shows an adorable mom holding a gun; the caption says “My other mom is the NRA.” One of the gun crates has a sign on it saying “Caution: Bang! Bang!”
Panel 6: A surprised looking infant hangs from one of the hooks on the wall. One of the children is smoking a cigarette. One is Little Orphan Annie, as she looked early in that comic strip. One has a t-shirt with a superhero named “I.P. Man.”
Panel 7: The newspaper, entitled “The Right News,” has a giant headline saying “Is Zohran Secretly Hamas?” A smaller subhead says “We imply yes!”
Panel 8: On the blackboard, below a complex looking algebra equation, it says “You’re right. You’ll never use this math in real life. Ha ha suckers!” Elsewhere, it says “E=M.C. Hammer” and, in a list format, “1. Fee 2. Fie 3. Foe 4. Fum”.
Panel 9: The cat is a pirate, with a big loop earring in one ear, an eyepatch, and a wooden leg. The vase has Charlie Brown’s shirt’s stripe on it.
I like the comically oversized gun in panel 4.
That’s easy: because they’re evil. They elected him knowing that he’d crash the economy, destroy public health, set up concentration camps, and act like as much of a dictator as he could get away with. He’d already done a lot of that in his first term. They voted for him anyway. This is the future that the right wants.
Yes, I know the whole “misled” argument, but Trump’s overt, bragged about position was that he was going to harm immigrants or anyone he thought looked like an immigrant. That was his whole platform initially and it remained his major selling point. They knew what they were voting for.