Cartoonist Fired for Anti-Trump Cartoons Draws Election Day as Choice Between Democracy, Totalitarian Rule

In honor of Election Day, editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers published a cartoon that encouraged people to vote and stressed the importance of the election.

Rogers, who was fired from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after submitting a series of cartoons that were critical of President Donald Trump, shared an Election Day cartoon on Twitter on Tuesday morning. The election cartoon showed a man at the voting booth examining the two options he could cast his ballot in favor of. One was totalitarian rule" and the other was "democracy."

"I guess they weren't kidding when they said this was an important election," a thought bubble above the man's head said.

Rogers titled the cartoon, "Vote for Democracy," and encouraged people on Twitter to "Get out and vote!" He added, "Our future depends on it."

Rogers was let go from his position at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in June after working at the newspaper for 25 years. Rogers told The Washington Post that his termination came after he submitted several cartoons that were critical of Trump and satirized issues that the president took a stance on.

"The move today by the leadership of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to fire Rob Rogers after he drew a series of cartoons critical of President Trump is disappointing, and sends the wrong message about press freedoms in a time when they are under siege," Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto said at the time.

During an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the paper's editorial director, Keith Burris, said the paper tried to find a "middle way" with Rogers but that the cartoonist was not willing to "collaborate." However, Rogers said he wasn't receiving "adequate explanations" as to why the cartoons weren't being printed or accepted.

Ahead of the midterm election, Rogers shared several other cartoons on Twitter, including one titled, "Election of Fear." The cartoon featured two voters at the polling booth, one of which was wearing a "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) hat.

The man in the MAGA hat said that he was voting because he's "afraid of a caravan of terrorists is coming over the border to steal my soul…and my job." The woman in the voting booth next to him said, "I'm voting because I'm afraid you've lost your mind!"

Along with the cartoon, Rogers wrote on Twitter that the GOP and Trump were running political ads focused on how "scary the Democrats are" instead of ads based on the greatness of the Republican Party.

On Tuesday, millions of Americans ventured to the polls to cast their ballot in the midterm election. Similar to previous midterm elections, it's considered to be a referendum on the president's performance. As of Saturday, over 30 million ballots were cast as part of early voting in the midterms.