There’s a timelapse drawing video for this cartoon – check it out!
For my entire life – and much longer than that – conservatives have been anti-Russia. In the 1980s, if a conservative talked about “the evil empire,” you didn’t need to ask which country they meant. (Unless they were a big Star Wars fan, I guess).
Conservatives have never been big fans of import taxes (aka tariffs), let alone demanding high tariffs – that high taxes harm the economy was practically a foundational belief. And the idea of annexing Canada was simply not on the radar.
How things have changed. It appears that Republicans are happy to jettison any of their prior beliefs, if it’s for a strongman who is demonizing the other – whether that other be immigrants, trans people, pro-Palestinian protestors, feminists, diversity, or whoever else is today’s target of choice.
So that was the impetus behind this cartoon. Well, that, and also it’s fun for me to draw cartoony anthropomorphic brains.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has six panels. Each panel shows a conversation between two men, one a young guy wearing a t-shirt, the other a middle-aged executive-looking man wearing a suit.
PANEL 1
Younger guy looks thoughtful as the older guy cheerfully makes a sales pitch.
OLDER: We’re cutting Medicaid, raising import taxes, huge tax cuts for billionaires, and Russia’s now our bestie. Also, we want to annex Canada.
PANEL 2
Younger holds up his palms, rejecting Older guy’s ideas. Older guy is smiling.
YOUNGER: But I don’t want any of that!
OLDER: We’ll also give you a couple of minorities to blame everything on and we’ll treat them like shit!
PANEL 3
A close shot of the Younger guy shows him looking thoughtful and a little blank. A panel on the side of his head opens.
PANEL 4
The panel opens further; we can now see it’s being opened by the Younger guy’s brain, which has eyes and limbs, and is squeezing out the opening.
PANEL 5
The brain jumps away, leaving an empty head behind.
PANEL 6
The Younger guy, an open panel still showing his empty head, is standing robotically and speaking too loudly. The Older guy smiles smugly.
YOUNGER: YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ slang for little details that are unimportant but fun.
Panel 1 – Younger guy’s t-shirt shows a big capital “T,” with hands coming out the “sleeves” and a collar drawn on top. In small print below the T it says “(get it?)”. A booklet lying on the sidewalk is entitled “How To Litter” with burst lettering saying “easy!” “fun” and “low cal!”
Panel 2 – The t-shirt now shows a chicken, with a thought balloon saying “Don’t call me fat.”
Panel 3 – The t-shirt now says “Lincoln Faked His Death.”
Panel 6 – The t-shirt now says “Down with Eastasia,” but “Eastasia” is crossed out and “Eurasia” written in.
Ah but the Russia that conservatives hated presented* itself as a progressive force for worker’s empowerment and anti-imperialism.
Putin’s Russia is mostly driven by religious fundamentalism and nationalist identitarianism. So, it’s perhaps natural, if not particularly pleasant, that conservatives are now Russophiles.
*yes, I know it wasn’t really either of these things.
Alas USA is not a multiparty system so each party only has to seem more desirable than the other one.
Greenland and Panama are more likely targets btw.
The former would mean war mostly in the air and on the sea giving USA a edge against NATO.
Canada as such is too large. The main goal would likely be a land bridge to Alaska and capturing certain southern areas ending the advance to easily defensible areas.
Btw its notable that there was stronger opposition against the Iraq war before it even begun. Trump must have noticed this as well.
Lyndon Johnson (1960), as reported by Bill Moyers, “What a Real President Was Like,” Washington Post (November 13, 1988)
I also think a lot of people genuinely think that a woman can not be strong enough to be president of the United States.
Kate – I think you’re right. But I bet that Condoleeza Rice could have had a pretty good chance at getting elected President. I recommend her book Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom. Much of it comes from her experiences as Secretary of State for Bush II but overall it analyzes various nations’ transitions from totalitarianism to democracy and how and why they either succeeded or failed.