I try my best to avoid drawing anything about Donald Trump. My feeling is that he is a dangerous demagogue and that attention (good or bad) simply feeds him. However, he is also (against all that is rational or holy) the likely 2024 Republican candidate for president of these United States of America, so it is neither easy nor advisable to ignore him.
So despite my intentions, I was really left with no choice when he paid a visit to my backyard here in Michigan last week. His speech at an auto parts supplier facility in Metro Detroit was his typical argle-bargle of insults, vitriol, and petty personal grievances. But the general theme was that electric vehicles (EVs) are bad — bad for auto workers, bad for business, bad for America, bad, bad, bad. And that he alone can save us all from the peril.
How exactly? He didn't say. He never says. Instead he implied that he would somehow make Ford, GM, and Stellantis stop their EV programs and build only internal combustion engine vehicles. And this would protect jobs, beat China, definitely not be government telling private industry what to do, and presumably own the libs.
Now in our very binary political environment, one might assume that I'm here to champion EVs. I'm not. They present a huge disruption to industry in general and our state in particular. So we should absolutely not be romanticizing them or diminishing the challenges they present (especially if our main reason for doing so is that Donald Trump seems to oppose them). We should be looking for the solutions that will allow the best possible benefits and ensure our country a position of technological leadership. Being the world's best horse-carriage makers will not make America great again.
John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.
