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Description
A second political cartoon for this election season. This time I am taking on the problem of single-issue voters, those who choose their candidate based on their stance on one hot-button issue and then care nothing about the candidate's other positions, their temperament, experience, or anything else. In the US in particular we have a large number of such voters who fall in with the Republicans by default because of their positions on abortion rights and gun control. (This is not to say that there aren't single-issue voters whose one issue pulls them to the Democrats; it's just not the focus of this particular cartoon.)

Thus we have the "Pro-Lifer" who is planning to vote for Donald Trump just because he is the Republican nominee and the GOP has an anti-abortion stance. She is hoping that Trump will honor the party line and appoint a suitable justice to the Supreme Court. It does not concern her that Trump's own stance on abortion has not always been "pro-life." Nor is she willing to hear any evil such as Trump's consistent objectification of women most vividly illustrated by the recently-surfaced recording in which he boasted about forcing himself on women.

Then there is the National Rifle Association member, ever convinced that the Dems are "coming for [his] guns." He is not concerned that the Obama Administration has not seized anyone's guns, but has actually expanded gun rights in some ways. Nor does he care about Trump's seeming ignorance of how our republic works according to the Constitution or that his proposals for religious restrictions on immigration, mass deportations without trials, torture, and so go against much of the rest of the Constitution, trampling all over the other nine amendments of the Bill of Rights. As long as he can have his Uzzi or his AK, he sees no evil in anything Trump might do.

And lastly, there's the Republican establishment, represented here by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who are unwilling to speak any evil of Trump, because they're afraid of losing the support of his base. Right or wrong, common sense, morality, and reason all go by the wayside. Re-election is all that matters and, sink or swim, they're chained to Trump come what may.

The whole point of this cartoon is that single-issue voting is a foolish practice and one that has helped keep Donald Trump afloat. Maybe it's time to reconsider? Abortion rates are actually going down even with a pro-choice administration. Maybe "no change" on abortion is preferable to the pipe-dream of a Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade which may never happen and comes at the cost of letting Trump carry out all his other plans (if he has any). Maybe preserving all our rights and our democracy is worth putting aside paranoid fears of an overreaching government to work on common-sense compromises for gun control. Maybe issue-driven voters might consider whose stance they can live with even if it's not exactly what you want when the alternative is someone who is manifestly unfit for office--someone we just can't live with.

Anyway, feel free to share this cartoon if you think it will change anyone's minds. That's a hard thing to do these days, but the stakes are too high not to try.

Description
A second political cartoon for this election season. This time I am taking on the problem of single-issue voters, those who choose their candidate based on their stance on one hot-button issue and then care nothing about the candidate's other positions, their temperament, experience, or anything else. In the US in particular we have a large number of such voters who fall in with the Republicans by default because of their positions on abortion rights and gun control. (This is not to say that there aren't single-issue voters whose one issue pulls them to the Democrats; it's just not the focus of this particular cartoon.)

Thus we have the "Pro-Lifer" who is planning to vote for Donald Trump just because he is the Republican nominee and the GOP has an anti-abortion stance. She is hoping that Trump will honor the party line and appoint a suitable justice to the Supreme Court. It does not concern her that Trump's own stance on abortion has not always been "pro-life." Nor is she willing to hear any evil such as Trump's consistent objectification of women most vividly illustrated by the recently-surfaced recording in which he boasted about forcing himself on women.

Then there is the National Rifle Association member, ever convinced that the Dems are "coming for [his] guns." He is not concerned that the Obama Administration has not seized anyone's guns, but has actually expanded gun rights in some ways. Nor does he care about Trump's seeming ignorance of how our republic works according to the Constitution or that his proposals for religious restrictions on immigration, mass deportations without trials, torture, and so go against much of the rest of the Constitution, trampling all over the other nine amendments of the Bill of Rights. As long as he can have his Uzzi or his AK, he sees no evil in anything Trump might do.

And lastly, there's the Republican establishment, represented here by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who are unwilling to speak any evil of Trump, because they're afraid of losing the support of his base. Right or wrong, common sense, morality, and reason all go by the wayside. Re-election is all that matters and, sink or swim, they're chained to Trump come what may.

The whole point of this cartoon is that single-issue voting is a foolish practice and one that has helped keep Donald Trump afloat. Maybe it's time to reconsider? Abortion rates are actually going down even with a pro-choice administration. Maybe "no change" on abortion is preferable to the pipe-dream of a Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade which may never happen and comes at the cost of letting Trump carry out all his other plans (if he has any). Maybe preserving all our rights and our democracy is worth putting aside paranoid fears of an overreaching government to work on common-sense compromises for gun control. Maybe issue-driven voters might consider whose stance they can live with even if it's not exactly what you want when the alternative is someone who is manifestly unfit for office--someone we just can't live with.

Anyway, feel free to share this cartoon if you think it will change anyone's minds. That's a hard thing to do these days, but the stakes are too high not to try.