CSotD: After the Ball is Over
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The elections are essentially over, pending a few squeakers yet to be finalized. It was good to have cartoons commenting on the results, but we’ve seen them now and it’s time to start looking forward, and while we will have a two-month lame duck session until the new crew is sworn in, Donald Trump will not become a lame duck until November 8, 2028.
We’ve certainly seen enough blue wave cartoons to last forever, but then here comes Barry Blitt to prove that with enough wit and talent you can bring new life to the oldest concepts. And today we’re going to look at a few other cartoons that don’t just show us what we’ve already seen.
I’m a little surprised to see Bok make this point, but then he’s been wavering on his support for Trump for a while, and I don’t think taking a firmer stance earlier would have changed things. However, aside from his policies that offended people, and his conceited vanity projects, Trump failed to support his party. He only went to rallies in places he felt were sure things and he mostly spoke about himself, not the person running for office. And when he found himself talking to half-empty venues, he stopped even doing that much.
Between their rejection by the people and their anger at his failure to campaign for them, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the remaining Republicans determined to start the rebuilding process now. Sometimes an own-goal is an unavoidable accident, but I think Bok draws this one the way it happened, and elephants have long memories.
Leahy is Australian, but the whole world is watching and he’s come to the same conclusion as Bok. This is a clever way to reverse the famous Godfather scene, which is based on the producer getting a horrifying message he certainly wasn’t expecting. If Trump got a horrifying message, it’s his own fault and if he wasn’t expecting it, well, maybe he’s not as clever as he thinks he is.
But Leahy adds a bit of dialogue to emphasize that Narcissus isn’t going to accept any blame. Nicely done.
And from New Zealand, a more pointed commentary. I like that he has been speared through the gut with that arrow but is calmly contemplating the message he hasn’t read. Gee, what do you suppose they’re trying to tell me?
I’d say that not only do you no longer have to pretend to believe it, but if you want to win another election, you probably ought to. I don’t think promoting your loyalty to Dear Leader is going to resonate with anybody, though given that any Republicans who are still in the House got in this time shows some voters out there are playing True Believers. But I suspect they voted Republican because they’re Republicans, not because they analyzed a whole lot that’s going on. The winds are shifting.
Matson notes that the ego still seems fully inflated. There certainly was a time when he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not look a single vote, but he had a lot of hangers-on beyond the MAGA faithful in those days. Matson does well to show the Republican Party as the victim of his assassination, because, while I doubt they’ll go into the mothballs of history like the Whigs, they have taken some serious damage here.
If they are going to recover, they’re going to have to change their ways, and not in two years when Trump is gone but very soon.
I really don’t think elevating a racist fascist to the post of White House Chief of Staff is going to lead the Republican party in a direction that will restore its former luster, but, Sack says, Trump is going hard core, doubling down on the things that made people vote against him, particularly the white-supremacist actions against immigrants and people who appear to be immigrants, which is central to Miller’s plan to clean up America.
And while it may be the most self-defeating personnel decision of the week, it may not be the most ridiculous. Trump offered the job of Press Secretary to Dana White, CEO of the Unlimited Fighting Championship (UFC), and, in his announcement, listed some fighters he thought should also be added to his staff. Rumor is that advisors meant a woman named Dana White who is in the public affairs department of the Pentagon.
A lot of people don’t know there’s a B in dumbass, but they know the Dana White at the UFC would be taking a monstrous pay cut for a job he would hate. But let’s not forget that Trump appointed the head of a professional wrestling association to be Secretary of Education, where she spoke about the important of steak sauce in our nation’s classrooms.
The unqualified Dana White turned down the job. Trump should hire the other Dana White, explaining that he already had the name on the office door and so is saving taxpayers money.
Jones makes an excellent seasonal reference: There is rampant speculation that the Secretary of Greasy Kid Stuff is going to get the axe before any Thanksgiving turkeys do.
While in other personnel moves, the anointed successor, Margulies says, is desperately attempting to distance himself from our Fallen Ruler.
Over the past several years, people have had fun playing back the things various candidates said about Trump when they were running against him, but once he won the nomination and then the presidency, he became the wisest statesman since the Congress of Vienna.
Now that he has no power to give, they remember that they never really liked him.
But they’re going to have to tell him the romance is over. As Horsey suggests, he’s far too self-centered to figure it out for himself. And Horsey didn’t have to reach for this: When Dear Leader was supposed to be making his final pitch to boost Republican chances in the midterms, he blathered on about the Reflecting Pool instead.
Trump may not know what happened on Tuesday, but everyone else in his party does. Yes, even Haley Stevens and John Fetterman.
Here singeth the GOP:
(By the way, I was tied up yesterday and the second piece that published Friday
was supposed to post then. All’s well.)
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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