With his singular style, Tom Toles tackles the complex issues of the day. This Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist skillfully targets political, economic and social concerns — in particular complicated environmental issues — with a clear-eyed precision that hits the mark every time.
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Comments (18) (Please sign in to comment)
ConserveGov said, 7 months ago
DC area Virginia loves the Dems massive government idea but that will fade.
ne7minder55 said, 7 months ago
@ConserveGov
Please pull your head out – you are showing a clear sign of methane poisoning: Incoherent speech.
VA is getting a choice of a guy running as a Dem who is not and a guy with all the charm, wit and humanity of Joe Stalin running as a Republican. Its lose-lose
Doughfoot said, 7 months ago
If you live, consciously or subconsciously, a small town or rural life, you probably vote Republican. If you live, consciously or subconsciously, an urban life, you probably vote Democratic. For cities to exist, large-scale planning and organization, i.e. government, is necessary. When you live in the middle of nowhere (actually or mentally) with few neighbors, neither government, nor the need for it, are visible.
Mayberry never was real, but some folks here in Virginia still think it represents the “real” America, while in reality most Americans live in or on the outskirts of the city.
There is a simple way to create a permanent Conservative majority in this country: replace one-man-one-vote with one acre-one-vote. This is quite clear in any county-by-county voting map. There are more “blue” people than “red” people in this country, but more “red” dirt than “blue” dirt.
Being an “outsider” is tougher in a small well-knit community than in a big city, so those who feel themselves to be “outsiders” also tend to vote Democratic. This is what is really meant by all the talk of “minorities.” This is why Republican efforts to reach out to a more diverse population usually fail: nothing they do or propose actually serves to make those who still feel themselves to be “outside looking in” feel like they belong.
Demography is on the side of the Democrats; that’s reality. But never fear, both parties will continue to change as they always have. The Democratic and Republican Parties of 20 years from now may look quite different. I doubt the GOP is going to cling to its present agenda and slowly commit suicide. I doubt the Democrats will always be able to hold together their divergent elements. But whether “conservative” or “liberal”, urban diversity is going to win out over rural home-town simplicity and homogeneity. Demography is Destiny.
zoidknight said, 7 months ago
@Doughfoot
The only reality is that the lazy wellfare clans insist we support them and that the democrats have delusions of entitlement programs.
Nantucket19 said, 7 months ago
@Doughfoot
" I doubt the GOP is going to cling to its present agenda and slowly commit suicide."
Considering the proposed House “leaders” are all white men, it doesn’t seem that the GOP will be changing anytime soon.
Simon_Jester said, 7 months ago
@zoidknight
Of course THAT reality only exist in the heads of folks how know that ‘those peopele’ are ALL too lazy to work.
Omnius said, 7 months ago
@zoidknight
Hey ‘roidknight – be thankful that our Liberal entitlement programs will keep you lazy tea baggers under a roof and with ample food to eat as well as socialized medicine you obviously won’t be able to afford on your own.
Tigger
said, 7 months ago
Matters not who wins, the Residents of Virginia lose
Tigger
said, 7 months ago
@Omnius
Because Obama will tax anyone working to death
walruscarver2000 said, 7 months ago
@zoidknight
I can’t decide if you’re really, really stupid or
a joker playing really, really stupid. Either way, you do it very well.
ARodney said, 7 months ago
Howie, I wouldn’t bring up the racial and gender profiles of congressional leaders there in your glass house.
Nantucket19 said, 7 months ago
I’ll look into your claim about all white and contact my reps. to change that if true.
How about you contact the GOP to get some WOMEN in leadership positions?
Night-Gaunt49 said, 7 months ago
zoidknight
You need to ask yourself why do ‘Red’ states take more money from govt than they pay in taxes while the ‘Blue’ states take in less than what they payed in state taxes? Why are the Reds the moochers here? (Using your terminology.)
emptc12 said, 7 months ago
@Doughfoot
I like your post, especially the one part that equates being an outsider “consciously or subconsciously …actually or mentally” with being a minority. We tend to think of minorities in racial terms. It’s become a politically-correct euphemism, somewhat snide. As so-called minorities become obvious numerical majorities, I wonder if use of the term will fade?
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The joys and problems of small towns contrasted to life in big cities were dominant themes in American literature around 100 years ago, plus and minus. The U.S. often thought of its rural population as the bedrock of society, urban centers as the swamps. I’m thinking offhand of prominent examples such as SISTER CARRIE, SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY, WINESBURG, OHIO, and OUR TOWN, and several Sinclair Lewis novels.
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All over the world, societies increasingly cluster around urban centers. Even far-flung areas in Africa and Asia are connected through modern communications. What does this mean for political systems? Will isolated areas be affected severely, if not brought over to urban attitudes? What will the systems be called – republics, democracies, commonwealths, or weird hybrids with many hyphenations?
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There are outsiders within outsiders in groupings of human society as if in a Mandlebrot factal. Is the minority within a minority the most despised, or is it the most influential? Are bacteria in charge, or are the organisms they occupy? Are people in charge or is Nature? Will monarchies return, will smartphones eventually connect us as if through telepathy and erase all artificial boundaries?
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Consideration of “location, location, location” is the optimum method to buy real estate. In the near future “Demographics” will be the key to political success, as you say. Right now, both U.S. parties try to cheat this by outrageous gerrymandering and tricky scientific means.
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As the older generations die, as the complexion of our population morphs to brown, as our cultures and traditions become even more consumer-based, will separate demographics be obsolete? How then will parties easily operate? It could no longer be through fear toward the outsiders, the minorities.
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Maybe, at last, our ingrained primate tribal imperative would no longer be “See the outsider, fear the outsider, kill the outsider.”
Eryx
said, 7 months ago
Oh, God. Not McAuliffe again!