Toon & text by John Auchter
Back in August, Oprah Winfrey traveled to Grand Rapids to be a surprise moderator for a panel discussion. Various West Michiganders had signed up to be part of a focus group about the current state of American politics. Fourteen were chosen, seven who had voted for Donald Trump in November and seven who had voted for Hilary Clinton.
The resulting piece, entitled “Divided,” aired on ’60 Minutes’ last Sunday. If you haven’t had the opportunity to see it, I highly encourage you to do so and draw your own conclusions. For me, it was reassuring. There were plenty of heated moments to be sure, but they were worked through. Differences of opinion were given thoughtful consideration, which then gave way to what appeared to be actual communication!
Particularly compelling was one gentleman’s concern that our American experiment with respectful discussion seems to be ending (especially with all the others nodding in agreement).
This stood in stark contrast with nearly everything the president has done or said this past week. And maybe this is a good opportunity to clarify my position: I’m not a bandwagoner for disliking Mr. Trump. I’ve never liked Donald Trump. I didn’t like him as a Democrat. I don’t like him as a Republican. He is a deeply narcissistic bully, and he has demonstrated this quite consistently over a very public lifetime. I have ample evidence and every reason not to trust him. I don’t trust Donald Trump for the same reason I wouldn’t trust putting my drawing hand into a running meat grinder: I know the consequence.
There. I expressed my opinion as clearly and with as little emotion as possible. I appreciate you reading it. I did it not with any desire to convert, but simply to be heard. Thank you. I will continue to do my best to hear others. We don’t have to agree or even find common ground. But we must not dismiss. Or worse, stop talking.
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com. You can also find his stuff on Michigan Public Radio’s website under Opinion.
Right there with you, John. Well said (drawn…).
I am pretty sure that you have moved to the Traverse City area. I agree with your opinions of Donald Trump. Pick up the local free publication named the Express. Steven Tuttle has an opinion article every week. He is very well informed and I always agree with him. You would too. Steven Tuttle for President. Lol.
I’m with you. A buffoon is a buffoon is a buffoon. Said it for years.
Right with you as well , John. Agreed, Judith.
Totally agree about the buffoon. Oprah for pres? The problem with both parties is that the candidates they put out there are not worthy of being president. Trump or Hillary. I voted for the lesser of two evils because I had no better choice. Trump was not the lesser.
Great column John and right on the money. If anyone read the last book about President Trump before he was elected one would know what type of man he was. I think people were hoping he would change but as the saying goes ” old dogs don’t learn new tricks”.
Twitter-de-dee, Twitter-de-dee,
The Dump tweets in his sewer with glee,
Says the Dump, says he,
“Will you twitter with me,
And follow me into my sewer, please, please?”
Twitter-de-dee, Twitter-de-dum,
Trump loves to tweet and treat you like scum!
John,
You are good.
Thanks for the tip on 60 minutes. One of my favorite shows. Missed it last week and this week.
John Auchter
Hillary Clinton lost – Get over it.
When you just clap like a trained, liberal seal in approval with a fake “non partisan panel” which is in fact nothing more than a bunch of Democrat haters, you prove your irrelevance.
Working dad, you prove your narrow minded, pro GOP and Fox News irrelevance every single time you post here. I’m further guessing you never even watched the 60 Minutes episode he spoke of either. If you didn’t, how could you even accurately judge and comment?
The division that being manifest in America comes from the liberal left and someone like John Auchter, Tom, Teddy Luba, Jim says and a bunch of other leftist liberals. I read and watch the news about a lot of these “not so tolerant” anti-fas and SJW’s that get their panties in a bunch when a conservative shows up at a university to speak, they have a hissy fit and try and sometimes succeed in stopping the speaker from speaking. How do they do that you ask They riot, loot and destroy property and other wise cause trouble for the local people.
They make the specious claim that the right is intolerant. I have yet to see someone on the right engaging in rioting and otherwise causing mayhem about a left leaning liberal speaker making his/her talking points. It is the anti-fa’s, SJW’s and other left leaning personnel that are intolerant. Look at michelle obama and hilliary clinton making disparaging remarks about women that voted republican, instead voting for hilliary. Suggesting that they were not real women for voting republican. I will not list all their comments.
But of course people like john auchter will put on their blinders and deny this information.
Do you and Working Dad even realize that Grand Rapids is the epi-Center of Pro-GOP followers? It’s way more difficult to find Democrats there versus Republicans
What is your point Bill? I cannot follow your train of thought.
If the epi-center is Grand Rapids, then Chicago, L.A. and other liberal
controlled cities can be called democratic epi-centers. Of course they have
a very high death count caused by severe gun control measures. So far Chicago alone
this year has somewhere around 500 violent gun deaths. How many have been shot in
Grand Rapids this year? We do not get the crime news about Grand Rapids violent deaths.
Are there republicans making violent type threats against democrats? I mean like the antifa and sjw’s make against conservative speakers? Are republicans rioting in the streets over some sort of perceived violation of God given rights mentioned in the founding documents of America.
Can you cite some statistics about republican violence? You cannot because there are not any. They might exist in a liberal mind and only in a liberal mind.
The left leaning media scream about the violence that happened in Las Vegas, but they will not comment on the ongoing violence in L.A., Chicago and N.Y.C. Maybe because the lame stream media is actually the true racists.
Had you even read John’s commentary above, you’d realize Oprah was in GR. GR = very conservative GOP area. You want to claim the media is being leftist and liberal but the forum above that she moderated was in GR, where finding Democrats isn’t that easy.
Now YOUR train of thought in both posts is really derailed, as it just seems to be Faux News talking points
Bill, You can easier find democrats in Grand Rapids than you can find republicans in Chicago, L.A., San Fransisco and other liberal controlled cities. If a republican dares to oppose democrats in the above listed cities or universities he/she will be basically told to shut up or else. One thing a lot of republicans are learning about some of the republicans that they are rino’s. That is Republicans In Name Only. They get elected to vote republican and too many times they roll over and vote democrat.
The reference to respectful discussions seems to be coming to an end in America. It is not the republicans that are shouting down the discussions. It is groups that lean democrat that doing the screaming. You are only allowed free speech under democrat rules so long as you share the same talking points that the democrats have, if you do not you could suffer physical harm.
Just look at USC Berkley. Conservative speakers were asked to speak, then they were cancelled because anti-fa and blm threatened to riot and so forth if the conservative speakers were allowed to present their views.