James MacLeod is a historian at the University of Evansville who began drawing political cartoons because of the Iraq War and George W. Bush’s presidency. In 2007, his cartoons began appearing in the Evansville Courier and Press.
As part of his work, MacLeod reads about history and politics almost daily. He is also motivated to keep up with current events because the stakes are so high, and politics in recent years has been very eventful.
“Some things jump out, and some issues are really big, and you kind of feel like you have to comment on them, and then others are more, maybe whimsical or quirky,” MacLeod said.
Regardless of the topic, MacLeod said the most important thing one needs to be a successful political cartoonist is an opinion.
“There’s not really much point to drawing cartoons that don’t say anything, or that are bland, or that try to see both sides of things,” he said.
MacLeod compared drawing political cartoons to his work as a historian.
“As a historian, you spend a ton of time looking at gray areas and trying to communicate to young people in college that it’s really important to look at both sides of an argument and realize that most of the time, there’s a certain amount of truth on both sides and that a nuanced approach is important,” he said. “As a political cartoonist, that’s almost fatal. Nobody really would ever click on a nuanced, both-sides political cartoon. So I’m pretty unashamed about taking a particular political perspective on my cartoons.”
He has seen that people are more likely to interact with his more extreme cartoons on social media, but he is also aware that his work does not exist in a vacuum. Out of consideration for his work and family, there are some cartoons he chooses not to draw because, as he put it, “you have to maintain a certain level of decorum.”
MacLeod reflected on the diminishing role of political cartoons and how social media is being used to convey these messages instead.
“Good political cartoons depend on your audience knowing what you’re talking about, and as people become increasingly both fragmented and disconnected from reading about politics or reading about history, it gets harder to have a succinct cartoon because you have to explain everything and that’s hard to do,” he said.
MacLeod said he feels like he is contributing to “the ongoing political debate and the ongoing political story in the United States.”
“Probably the biggest thing I did was publicly put my position out there,” he said. “And as much as there are people that don’t like what I do and get pissed because of what I do, I also am very aware that there are people out there who get encouraged and reassured in their beliefs because they see what I’m drawing.”
Through his cartoons, MacLeod provides an opinion that is not found often in conservative environments like Indiana.
“I would see my role as encouraging the people who share these views,” MacLeod said. “And if it’s only encouraged one person in 20 years, I would feel that was enough.”
More of MacLeod’s work can be found on his Facebook, MacLeod Cartoons.
