{"id":22807,"date":"2017-03-03T20:40:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-04T04:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=22807"},"modified":"2017-03-03T10:47:09","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T18:47:09","slug":"cartoon-the-two-party-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=22807","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: The Two Party System"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"two-party-system-1500\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In my youth, I was very tempted by third parties. Not so much nowadays.<\/p>\n

But this cartoon isn’t about that; it’s about the ridiculous choice between two major parties, one of which is a bit technocratic and complacent, the other of which is both ridiculous and vile. This isn’t how things are supposed to work, but it feels like we have no viable alternatives.<\/p>\n

I’m rather pleased with the art for this one, and have left it in black and white on purpose. I think most of my cartoons from now on will have color of some sort, though.<\/p>\n

If you like this cartoon, you can read a bunch more for free at my Patreon<\/a>! And please consider supporting these cartoons<\/a>. The support I get from readers on Patreon enables me to do many more political cartoons.<\/p>\n

Transcript of cartoon<\/p>\n

Title at the top of the cartoon: The Two Party System<\/p>\n

Panel 1
\nA woman is standing in front of a little booth with a sign that says “DEMOCRATS.” The booth is in the style of Lucy’s psychiatry booth from the comic strip “Peanuts.” Seated behind the booth is an older white man, leaning his face on his hands; he doesn’t look very energetic.<\/p>\n

WOMAN: Poverty is a national disgrace!<\/p>\n

Panel 2
\nA close-up of the Democrat dude.
\nDEMOCRAT: That’s why we Democrats want to expand the earned income tax credit.
\nWOMAN: Okay, good. And?<\/p>\n

Panel 3
\nA shot of the two of them. His head is still leaning on his hands; she’s waving her arms angrily.
\nDEMOCRAT: And there’s some other technical fixes we could do…
\nWOMAN: Tiny technical changes aren’t enough!<\/p>\n

Panel 4
\nA close-up of the woman. She’s talking angrily and checking off things on her fingers.
\nWOMAN: What’s needed is single payer! Or free child care! Or a real game-changer, like a universal basic income!<\/p>\n

Panel 5
\nThe woman stomps away from the booth. The Democrat doesn’t even lift his head out of his hands.
\nWOMAN: Forget it! I’m out of here!
\nDEMOCRAT: You’ll be back.<\/p>\n

Panel 6
\nThe woman angrily walks to the right; in the background there’s a stone wall, and beyond that a hillside with trees on it.<\/p>\n

Panel 7
\nThe woman has arrived at a similar booth to the Democrat’s booth, but this one is labeled “GOP.” She talks to the middle-aged white an at the booth. The man behind the booth reacts angrily, grabbing the booth with one hand and leaning very far forward, thrusting his other hand out in a “STOP!” gesture.
\nWOMAN: I’m concerned about poverty. What will Republicans do for-
\nGOP MAN (very large letters): NO!<\/p>\n

Panel 8
\nA close-up on the GOP man. He is yelling, eyes bulging, spittle flying.
\nGOP MAN: Not MY fault you’re a lazy welfare queen DEPENDENT wallowing in false victimhood! Take responsibility for your own life, LOSER!<\/p>\n

Panel 9
\nThe woman, visibly deflated and shaken, hugging herself, is stumbling back to the Democrat’s booth.
\nDEMOCRAT: Told ya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my youth, I was very tempted by third parties. Not so much nowadays. But this cartoon isn’t about that; it’s about the ridiculous choice between two major parties, one of which is a bit technocratic and complacent, the other … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,25,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-economics-and-the-like","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22807"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22811,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22807\/revisions\/22811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}