Permission To Hate

My cartoon for The Hamilton County Reporter

“I hate Islam, it’s a demonic death cult.” - Indiana Lt. Governor and Christian Nationalist pastor Micah Beckwith

“We’re giving people permission to hate again.” - Indiana Lt. Governor and Christian Nationalist pastor Micah Beckwith

“Now, I love Muslims, because they make great Christians when Jesus gets ahold of them, but I hate Islam.” - Indiana Lt. Governor and Christian Nationalist pastor Micah Beckwith

This ladies and gentlemen is the latest and greatest political embarrassment my state has offered up to mock and despise. And we all thought that Dan Quayle and Mike Pence couldn’t be topped.

Now, please understand that these bizarre comments aren’t anything new coming from our Lt. Governor. Since taking office he’s given us all a history lesson by praising the “Three-Fifths Compromise” which declared that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a person. Pastor Beckwith also gave us all a big laugh back in 2011 when he was traveling through the state to our south and noticed a sign that read, “Kentucky Downs”. He followed up by asking “is that a form of Kentucky autism??” There have also been investigations of Beckwith’s office for ghost employment and allegations of AI generate pornographic images of another politicians wife. In the last few months he’s generated controversy with his comments pertaining to 2 separate high schools. The first, Valparaiso High School, lead to the superintendent issuing a public apology to parents and student in regard to Beckwith’s appearance as a speaker. The second, Westfield High School became a story because our Lt. Governor criticized the school’s band on his Facebook page. Apparently he didn’t care for them performing music from the “demonic” opera, Carmen.

You might be asking what Indiana Governor Mike Braun has to say about his Lt. Governor preaching hate. Just yesterday he made this comment. “I wouldn’t have said it that way, he’ll have to figure out a way to get around it, ‘cause that’s probably not what he intended to do.” Except it is exactly what he intended to do. Beckwith has doubled down and defended his comments over and over. Days ago he posted the following on his X account. “I would like to take the opportunity to wish all Muslims in Indiana the best. And by best I mean I hope you all become Christian.”

I could go on and on and on about this nonsense, but I’m sure that by now I’ve made all of you out-of-staters beyond jealous of me and my fellow Hoosiers.

Suffer.

Sketches & sketchy stuff…

I had a lot of difficulty with this cartoon. Not with the idea, but with the drawing. The idea came about very quickly. It was a short creative trip to go from HATE ISLAM to HATE IS LAME.

The issue I had was in drawing a decent cartoon of Micah Beckwith. I did a previous cartoon of him a few weeks back and I wasn’t happy with my effort back then and I struggled with it again this time. You can see my various attempts (and failures) above. As my deadline approached I ended up settling for a so-so caricature and filed the cartoon with the paper. I really hated doing that, but I had a deadline and I didn’t want to disappoint my editor and the publication.

The next day I woke up very disappointed in myself and so I went back to my drawing table and I came up with a much better attempt and likeness. Even though the original cartoon is the one that printed I did change it for my own personal satisfaction. Fortunately I have been able to share the improved version here and on my social media pages. I feel much, much better because of that.

Final drawing…

If you chose to help me out by becoming a paid subscriber you can have the signed original drawing of this cartoon (or any other you choose) along with a signed color print.

Below is the original final drawing before I improved the character.