The Art Of Politics (June): “Is This Really The Best We’ve Got?” – Elections And Debates
by Richard Bruton
The Art Of Politics, a monthly roundup of all things political cartooning…
In a month of impending UK general election and USA presidential debates, Peter Brookes sums it all up perfectly…
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USA…
In a month dominated by the Presidential debates, Morten Morland with just how every one else in the world looks at the state of the States…
TRUMP OF COURSE…
Meanwhile, away from the debates… a lot of Trump cartoons of course…
Tom Stiglich taking a rather dubious position here that really does illustrate quite how Right-Wing cartoonists and voters see Trump…
THE STATE OF THE NOT SO UNIFIED UNION…
The USA hasn’t been this divided since the civil war…
Mike Luckovich on the continued threat to women’s rights…
Mike Luckovich on the continued struggle of the separation of Church and State in the wake of the Louisiana ruling that the 10 Commandments be displayed in schools… (CNN)
Gun Violence as a public health crisis according to the US Surgeon General… Matt Davies…
THE NOT SO SUPREME COURT… AGAIN…
The highest court in the land continues to do so much that’s debatably bad for the country and democracy – see this CBS article for a round up.
The most self-serving and frankly scandalous ruling was one that effectively legalised bribery. See this Guardian article for a round-up of that. But effectively, they’ve ruled that it’s absolutely fine to reward/pay-off state and local officials (presumably including the Supreme Court itself) for their decisions with gifts, vacations, cash and anything else as long as it’s given to them AFTER the service and not before. Because that makes absolute sense, right????
Mike Luckovich on the Court’s Trump-ist leanings…
GENERAL ELECTION UK…
We’re mere days away from the general election here in the UK where Conservative PM, Rishi Sunak’s downfall seems all but certain, with many predicting a super-majority in Parliament for Labour under Kier Starmer – not so much that they’ve done much to warrant it, more that the Tory vote is shipping out to the Reform Party – more on them in a bit.
Rishi Sunak has run a campaign best described as calamitous – he didn’t exactly help his cause by attending a D-Day event early in the month and then leaving halfway through. And then he went on to really have people throwing hands up in acknowledgment of just how out of touch the richer than the King Prime Minister was when he mentioned that he, poor little Rishi, had to go without Sky TV as a kid just so his ma and pa could save up to send him to his eye-wateringly expensive and privileged private school. And finally, there was the scandal of various Tory Party staffers having an insider bet on the date of the general election.
Election on 4 July – so still plenty of time for another gaff before then. You wouldn’t put it past them.
Here’s Dave Brown to sum the month up so well…
Nicola Jennings on Sunak’s D-Day disaster…
Ben Jennings on poor ‘lil Rishi having to go without Sky TV as a kid – diddums…
Ben Jennings on Labour getting ahead on the polls, all to a backdrop of England at the Euro 2024 Championships…
Ella Baron on how desperate Rishi needs to be to bring in Boris for the campaign…
Corb Calow Davies – under 18 winner at the 2022 Young Cartoonist of the Year…
Nicola Jennings and the betting scandals…
Morten Morland on Labour uncertainties…
… and Morten Morland again…
REFORM PARTY & NIGEL FARAGE…
The return of Nigel Farage, the pretend everyman of British Politics with a Coutts account and a habit of being a thorn in the side to all sides of British politics. If you’re after someone to blame for Brexit… look no further.
Anyway Reform is a party with a mission – even though no one’s quite sure what that mission is. But it does have an awful lot to do with getting the foreigners out of the country/stopping them coming in. A simple way to think of it is by saying that not everyone that votes Reform UK is a racist but pretty much every racist, xenophobic, jingoistic muppet in England will vote Reform UK. We’ve already had several potential Reform candidates caught up in racist allegations.
Martin Rowson and the lip service paid to the lessons of D-Day – with Farage perfectly lampooned…
Ben Jennings also brings together Farage and the D-Day anniversary…
Steve May imagines Farage’s zoom meeting for prospective Reform Party candidates…
Martin Ronson on the ultimate snake oil salesman…
THE ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT…
Well, it’s always indicative of how long something has been going on and seeing how it loses impact in the news to see something that did dominate the political cartoonist pieces this month suddenly barely appear.
And such is the case with Israel & Gaza. The war goes on, the deaths continue to mount…
UKRAINE
Ella Baron on Zelenskiy’s call to the West for aid…
FRANCE…
President Macron called a surprise election, which seems to be having exactly the effect he didn’t want, bringing an ultra-right-wing coalition to power in one of Europe’s finest democracies. A scary idea…
