By Abdul Masih –
At a time when both the Republican and Democratic parties favored big government, political cartoonist Arthur Sloggatt lampooned the fatcats for mercilessly squeezing every penny out of the common man via taxes.
The New York Daily Mirror gave national prominence to his cartoons, which also exposed the evils of communism. They most certainly were seen by little Donald Trump, whose father was a developer in Queens at the time.
Sloggatt died in September 1975 a frustrated man. His vision of America as powerful, lean and efficient was at the time virtually ignored by the powers that be.
If he could have lived just six more years, he would have seen his legacy taken up by Ronald Reagan. If he could have lived until 2017, he would have seen his cartoons at work in Donald Trump.
Now a book has been launched to preserve Sloggatt’s legacy. The Art of Courage is a collection of some of his greatest political cartoons with historical explanations by author J.L. Coronado, a former Marine helicopter door gunner and historian.
“Arthur Sloggatt represented a consistent and enduring world view, limited government, limited taxes, the importance of the family unit at the center of society,” Coronado says. “This is a perspective that used to be shared by the two major parties in American society. But starting in the late 50s, it began to fall out of favor with the elites in government, in academia and in the media.”
While the world around him dismissed traditional values, rejected family and morals and hard work, he drew and drew and drew – until the Mirror, locked in a protracted strike, finally closed its doors in 1963,
“Arthur Sloggat was a lonely voice in New York City mass media embracing this unfashionable, traditional worldview,” Coronado says. “He passed away, unfortunately, at the height of Big Government and anti-traditional values in politics. But people like him kept the flame of these values going, even in the wilderness years of the 60s and 70s.
“Had Sloggatt lived another 10 years, he would have been astonished to see his antiquated views become energized and fresh again as many people came to reject the big government-utopian false promises of the 1960s,” Coronado says.
Sloggatt’s grandson Justin Sloggatt is the editor who brought the cartoons and content together in honor of the family patriarch, who had nine kids.
“As a kid I always heard about these cartoons. I heard extensively about how influential he was through his cartoons,” says Justin, who runs Wise Barbecue trucks in Los Angeles. “Because the newspaper went out of business, my grandfather’s legacy was lost and there was no record of it. Grandmother kept them in a pile and did not circulate them. After she passed, we got access to the cartoons and scanned them. There were 1,000 of them.”
Related content: I’m no longer ashamed of America, how the Left destroys marriage, the radicalization of young women.
