Someone Mocking Madison Cawthorn’s Handwriting Sparks Controversy

North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn is known for many things: trying to board a plane with a loaded gun, multiple accusations of sexual assault, outspoken racism. The conservative politician is very popular among his constituents, and he leans heavily on the classic tropes of the GOP party. So, there are a lot of things to criticize Cawthorn about.

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But right now, some people are criticizing his handwriting, which is admittedly terrible. Whether or not someone’s handwriting is a clue to their intelligence or morality is a different argument, and it’s the one that came up after Twitter user @Zachheltzel posted a letter from Cawthorn.

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“I just saw Madison Cawthorn’s handwriting so now you have to see Madison Cawthorn’s handwriting,” Heltzel wrote.

Cawthorn’s handwriting is fairly juvenile. It’s also true that he was in a car accident in 2014, which he has often fabricated details about, that left him in a wheelchair. An accident like that, which damaged his spinal cord, can obviously affect the coordination needed to write in a neat script.

There were plenty of people making fun of Cawthorn’s handwriting:

Is this real? Why is this out-of-control toddler wishing a 74 year old man a good career?

— Christopher John Ricchetti (@cjricchetti) July 31, 2021

Now that I’m no longer distracted by the “Dear Santa” penmanship, I’m appalled by the syntax and punctuation.

— PoppyWrites (@poppy_writes) July 31, 2021

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Same but I feel like of I was an elected Congressman I’d at least try to write in straight lines

— Maddy s (@cowardlylyons) July 31, 2021

There were also a whole lot of people calling the mockery ableist:

I’m a disabled person who writes like this and I’m one of the people mocking it.

— Charlotte (@femmesforchrist) July 31, 2021

Funny, he swings his guns around with abandon yet he can’t manage a pen?

— WorseBeforeBetter (@before_worse) July 31, 2021

See here is where the comparison makes me very uneasy. My college student son is on the autism spectrum and his neurological wiring means he also takes great care with his writing and it may not look great. There are so many things to criticize Cawthorn for, this ain’t it.

— Orange Owl (@orangeowl18) July 31, 2021

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Your opinion is valid, thank you for writing it down. However 1. We have no information whether Cawthorn lives with dyslexia or dysgraphia. 2 His far-right comrades and media are not an ally to people with disabilities 3. Even a dyslexic person can learn cursive handwriting.

— Máté #freeszfe (@LatvanyMate) July 31, 2021

Heltzel defended himself, saying the defense of others was itself was ableist:

Assuming that Cawthorn writes like a teenage boy because he’s disabled and not because he’s an immature manchild is ableist.

— Zach Heltzel (@zachheltzel) July 31, 2021

I say it matters more that Cawthorn is a monstrous human being than that he has messy handwriting. Most things are communicated through email these days anyway.

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*First Published: August 1, 2021, 7:45 am