Blame Abigail

Drawn for the Fredericksburg Advance

This was drawn for the Fredericksburg Advance.

When I showed this cartoon to my proofreader, Laura, yesterday, she said, “It’s all correct and not satire, judging from my dangerous venture into a Republican Facebook comment section yesterday.”

We've seen this play before from Republicans. Remember when they created the Tea Party to oppose Obama's spending, even before he had spent a nickel as a new president in 2009? Even after George W. Bush funded two wars with tax cuts? Yeah, they're kind of doing the same thing in Virginia to Abigail Spanberger, our brand new Democratic governor, and the first female to hold the job.

Virginia political cartoonist Dick Wright is upset with Abigail Spanberger, even though he doesn't have a lot to be upset about yet. He's like Steve Carell's character, Brick Tamland, from Anchorman. “Loud noises!” Dick is probably about as smart, too.

Maybe he's upset that Spanberger rescinded former governor Glenn Youngkin’s order for state police to cooperate with ICE, never mind that the federal agency is nothing but a bunch of thugs kidnapping children and shooting innocent women in the face. That may be what explains Dick's little tantrum here. And after yesterday's incident of ice murdering an innocent man in the middle of the street, you really have a hard time disagreeing with our governor’s order.

Maybe Republicans are upset that she has removed most of the anti-education goons that Youngkin had installed on UVA’s Board of Visitors.

Maybe they are upset that Virginia now has a governor who believes in climate change and will reverse several of Youngkin’s orders on the issue.

Maybe they know she is going to support an assault weapons ban in the state.

It’s early, but so far, I think she is doing a great job. Oh, wait, that must be what they're having a problem with.

Now remember, Republicans claim anyone who criticizes Donald Trump or his policies has Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), as though no one could have a legitimate issue with any of his policies or behavior.

Spanberger is cleaning up after Glenn Youngkin and setting a model for national Democrats when it comes time to clean up after Donald Trump. Maybe that's what Republicans don't like about her. Go, Abigail, go!

Creative note: This is the first cartoon drawn and written exclusively for the Fredericksburg Advance since my stroke. They did publish another one about a month or so ago, but that was not intended for the Advanced in its initial stages. My editor, Martin, dropped by my apartment while I was working on it, saw it, and asked me to give it to the Advance.

Before the stroke, I don't think I had missed a week in all of 2025 for the Advance. Now, the schedule is still to draw one a week, but I'm not going to kill myself if there aren't big topics for me to choose from.

My goal with the national cartoons is to publish five a week, though this week I did six. The extreme workload I was keeping before probably contributed to the stroke. I mean, I drew a daily cartoon for over eight years, even when I was traveling overseas. That's over. I need more days off and less pressure.

Drawn in 30 seconds

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