John Auchter
Contributor, Auchter's ArtSince 1995 John has created Michigan-based editorial cartoons for the Grand Rapids Business Journal, the Grand Rapids Press, and MLive Newspapers. His cartoons are currently featured at MichiganRadio.org and are syndicated to newspapers through the Michigan Press Association. John is an active member of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. You can view an archive of his editorial work and other cartoons at Auchtoon.com.
In addition to cartoons and essays for Michigan Radio, John works as a technical communication specialist. He has worked for a variety companies, from startups to large corporations, and has operated his own business. The job basically is the same as cartooning — putting words and images together to communicate. But in this case, John knows enough not to draw funny pictures of his boss or client. (Well, now he does.)
John grew up on the east side of the state near Flint, graduated from Michigan Tech in da UP, and has lived in West Michigan since. He vacations Up North every summer and shovels lots of snow every winter. After his wife, he is the biggest Tigers fan in the family. He drinks Vernors when his tummy hurts.
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GM working together with an environmental group to encourage tougher, more aggressive regulation of their industry? This is definitely not the GM I knew growing up in Flint! How do you explain it? Well, of course, conspiracy theories are an option. -
Frankly, offending somebody is often exactly what Meshawn Maddock and the Michigan Republican Party are aiming for.
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It is, of course, natural to want to bend the rule of law to meet a desired outcome. (Making "states’ rights" mean what we want them to mean is something of a national pastime.) But it shouldn't be a convenient default.
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Political message makers are all highly trained to stay strictly to their scripts. And if not their scripts, then definitely their ideology. This makes any sort of substantive debate or thoughtful interview very difficult.
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Your employer has just demonstrated that they are perfectly willing to sacrifice you. I mean, it's 2022, and none of this is a surprise.
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A terrible idea would be to take it upon yourself to prove the 2020 elections were rigged by perusing your own investigation based entirely on what you want to believe and then confiscating voting machines.
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Already the political operatives of the nation and state are begging us to cut our precious Michigan summer short and sprint ahead toward the fall election. Don't listen to them.
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Instead of simply picking the most decent, reasonably intelligent candidate who best aligns with our views, we are encouraged, nay, indoctrinated to think like political operatives: What candidate is most electable? What candidate is going to excite certain key demographics? What candidate is going to deliver exclusively for our side?
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I don't want "that's my feeling" to be an excuse for what my governor does.
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We carry around slights, real or manufactured, and refuse to let them go. And then when an event (say, an attempted coup) does need to be deconstructed, there are those who want nothing more than to get past it. "What's done is done — we need to move on!"
