Ted Rall’s cartoon skewers Democratic hopefuls copying Trump playbook. Last week Gavin Newsom faced backlash for proposing deep cuts to immigrant health care while vowing to crack down on the homeless. Pete Buttigieg stirred debate by endorsing Trump style tariffs to protect American jobs. Gretchen Whitmer drew criticism for rejecting birthright citizenship to appeal to conservative voters. Yet Democratic voters expressed frustration with these candidates for mimicking Trump policies while opposing him. Rall mocks this hypocrisy as Newsom, Buttigieg and Whitmer chase Trump voter base by adopting his tactics. The irony lies in their anti Trump stance while embracing his ideas.
Clash of the Democratic Trump Wannabes
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Is the third panel mislabeled? Or is Gretchen Whitmer (Governor of Michigan) in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula looking at the border with Wisconsin?
I don’t expect Trump to not be Trump. After that bullet nicked his ear — a fraction of a second after he turned his head just enough for it to miss plowing through the right side of his face — I realized that Trump was going to win. No one gets THAT close to being assassinated only to then lose the election.
But I had hope that Trump might have had an awakening. A genuine moment of introspection.
It’s been a similar trajectory with the democrats now pretty much for my entire political lifespan. Bill Clinton never gave a shit about the middle class. Having escaped poverty himself by using what connections he (and his mother) could find, Clinton realized a crucial truth: there’s a lot of stupid people out there in the middle and lower classes, and they are much more easily tricked into voting against their interests than being rallied to fight for each other. It’s always “mah family” never “everyone’s family.”
Then came Obama. Who kept Gitmo open. Took microsips of the water of Flint, Michigan. And told the middle class to drop dead pretty much every single day every single time he called them “folks.” And that’s what they were: lumpen hayseeds who fell for his smooth bullshit at every turn. But the bankers knew exactly who he kneeled to.
Then came Biden. It’s a short list of people I would wish bone cancer on. But Biden’s on it. He spent his entire political career fucking over the middle class and the working class. A conniving cheap little con artist who surrounded himself with a cadre of con artists.
And in all three cases, the democratic votership still backs these goons. To speak ill of them is to call down the lightning from their mindless supporters. So raise a glass: high credit card interest, the elevation of student loan debt to a magical status that makes it entirely unlike any other debt, the prison-industrial complex, insider trading, keeping the bankers out of prison, leaving Gitmo open, never even bringing universal health care to a vote on the Senate floor, etc.
Trump has completed the transformation of what used to be a viable political process. It started with the Clintons and their political push toward centrism and compromise, as dictated by the owner class. And now we have Trump. When he leaves office — feet-first or otherwise — you know the democrats will be there to advance a terrible and weak candidate who will do just like Clinton, Obama, and Biden: screw us all over while smiling at us.
because we all want to Russophile’s opinion, #zeroselfunderstanding
Reductively implying Pete Buttigieg goes around reminding people that he’s gay is so hilariously illustrative of liberals not being aware of their own insensitivity is fantastic
It’s like the male CNN douche asking SE Cupp why women voted against their own interests and then being surprised that Cupp had a hostile reaction
So fantastic
Capitalism prides itself on being about “competition.” But competition, like a sports playoff, leads to fewer and fewer, but bigger and bigger, winners, and more and more losers. Ultimately, the winners in capitalism are big enough to control the government, and thus fascism is the logical end result of capitalism–and the Democrats are committed to capitalism. What else can they do? Go socialist? Alas, highly unlikely.
>> just enough for it to miss plowing through the right side of his face
Whoa!! Bet someone needed a wardrobe change after writing that!