On the eve of the 47th US Presidential Inauguration, in January 2025, I found myself in physical therapy rehab after a shoulder operation. Unable to work in ways I was used to, and disinclined to keep my mouth shut about the media buzz of the day, I turned to coloured pencils, paper, and words. Earlier “bootworks” merged with baseball caps; a pair of boots, or rather, a pair of two different boots - a cowboy boot and a Wehrmacht officer’s boot, depicting similar political ideologies - commiserating with each other for being united by their respective compromised pasts, each hiding their previous transgressions by proudly wearing a hat bearing an imagined slogan of impunity.

 

Throughout, I have been mesmerised by the inflated FOMO, about how they (new immigrants) might take away from us (American citizens) that which we took away from the indigenous inhabitants (Native Americans), and simultaneously appalled at all the sloppy thinking used to justify these tangled beliefs. The following drawings have been inspired by the unmistakably elitist dissonance seeping out of all those hats, professing something about America and greatness. I agree completely…let’s Make America Great Again…now more than ever, but is this the best way to let it happen, white-washing past misdeeds by giving them some kind of new fake credibility, sweeping the facts and lessons of history back under the carpet - including the entire history of slavery. This smacks of doublethink in relation to fascism, and how this process is at play in double consciousness, as described by W.E.B. Du Bois - two similar yet slippery notions. 

 

Both involve living with antithetical perspectives at the same time, creating a divided, debilitated conscious-ness, but they differ intrinsically with regard to the origin of the contradiction. Doublethink implies sincerely buying into both sides of a contradiction to conform to the Party line. It isn't just about consciously lying - it is about conditioning oneself to muddle the difference between what is true and what is false. In double consciousness, however, the contradiction isn’t only between conflicting propositions, rather, the dilemma results from the dual competing identities caused by racial subordination; how oppressed individuals see themselves as opposed to how they are seen through the lens of the dominating powers that imprison and kill. Yet, they still remain aware of both positions, which itself is an asset, a tool of survival. Doublethink serves to cancel double consciousness. Is this ringing any bells?

 

Hello, America, our promise could be great, would we ever get there, without climbing on other peoples’ backs or throwing our neighbours under the next self-driving EV, or cruise missile (named after a Native American tool/weapon.) Which brings us to the institution of political satire, of lampooning…as long as there have been civil societies and political parties, as far back as the Greeks, there has been lampooning. The “father of the political cartoon” in the US, Thomas Nast (yes, the guy credited with first comparing the GOP* to a fat elephant, as well as castigating Southern Democrats for their merciless anti-immigrant views), himself an immigrant from Germany, and a Republican no less, is to name only one. In this context, my latest drawings are not passing final judgement about how totally misleading, incompetent and unfit 47 might be for the job of being President of the United States, they are moreso addressing the multitudes that somehow got suckered into voting for him, and still actually walk around wearing those silly hats confessing it, which begs the question, given all the evidence, “How could you?”

 

*GOP stands for "Grand Old Party," the traditional nickname for the Republican Party.