{"id":25725,"date":"2020-08-04T11:36:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T18:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=25725"},"modified":"2020-08-04T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T18:36:40","slug":"cartoon-how-politicians-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=25725","title":{"rendered":"Cartoon: How Politicians “Lead”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Help me make more of these cartoons by supporting my Patreon!<\/a> A $1 or $2 pledge really matters.<\/p>\n

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So yesterday someone was telling me that “the Democrats have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the left on this” – “this” being health care, in this case, but you could say the same thing about any number of issues. I thought “hey, I did a cartoon about that years ago” and searched around, and couldn’t find it on any of my webpages.<\/p>\n

I think I simply forgot to post this one. So here it is!<\/p>\n

As I said, it applies to many issues, but the issue I had in mind when drawing this was same-sex marriage \u2014 one of many issues in which the Democratic base got there years before the politicians did.<\/p>\n

People forget that Joe Biden began his career as a pro-life Democrat<\/a> \u2014 he even supported a constitutional amendment to undo Roe v Wade. But over time, the base became too solidly pro-choice for a pro-life Democrat to be a viable presidential candidate. So Biden changed. And he continues to change, such has his newfound opposition to the Hyde amendment.<\/p>\n

I don’t say this to criticize Biden. It’s good <\/em>that he changed. We want <\/em>our politicians to move to the left!<\/p>\n

If elected, Biden will not be left enough for my tastes. But at the same time, his administration will probably support policies well to the left of <\/a>Barack Obama or Bill Clinton’s administrations. Because we dragged him there.<\/p>\n

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TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON<\/strong><\/p>\n

This cartoon has four panels. Each of the panels shows the same location: A abstract, mostly empty space. But there’s a white line dividing the space in two. On the left side of the space are three activist-looking people – a woman wearing a sleeveless turtleneck and glasses, a man wearing a hoodie and a knit hat, and a woman with a short spiky hairdo.<\/p>\n

On the right of the line is a handsome man in his 40s or 50s, with neatly combed hair, wearing black pants and a business shirt with a necktie. He basically looks like a politician. Also to the right of the line is some sort of pole sticking straight up from the ground (I was thinking it was a lamppost when I drew it, but since we’re only seeing the bottom six or seven feet of it, we don’t see the “lamp” part in this cartoon).<\/p>\n

PANEL 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Politician is clinging to the lamppost with both hands. A rope is tied around his ankles, and Glasses, Knit Cap, and Spiky are pulling hard on the rope, as if they’re in a tough game of “tug of war,” trying to pull the Politician to the left. They’re pulling so hard that the politician’s legs and body are horizontal, and he’s a couple of feet off the ground. The three activists have expressions of effort and determination; the Politician is wailing.<\/p>\n

GLASSES: C’mon!<\/p>\n

KNIT CAP: We’re going this way!<\/p>\n

POLITICIAN: Can’t we be patient?<\/p>\n

PANEL 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the three continue to pull on the, the politician has lost his grip on the lamppost. His fingernails are leaving scrapes on the ground as he struggles not to be pulled left.<\/p>\n

GLASSES: Why is he being so stubborn?<\/p>\n

SPIKY: Heave!<\/p>\n

POLITICIAN: Nooooooo! It’s not the time yet! It’s not safe!<\/p>\n

PANEL 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Politician has been pulled to the left of the line and is looking around fearfully. The three activists are panting, bending over or sitting on the ground or leaning against the side of the panel, clearly exhausted.<\/p>\n

PANEL 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

The politician has stood up and is taking a prideful pose, The activists are reacting to what he says with surprise.<\/p>\n

POLITICIAN: I’m proud my leadership got us over the line!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Help me make more of these cartoons by supporting my Patreon! A $1 or $2 pledge really matters. So yesterday someone was telling me that “the Democrats have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the left on this” … 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":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartooning-comics","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25725","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=25725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25727,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25725\/revisions\/25727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}