The WaPo profiles Ryleigh Cooper, a Forest Service worker who says she voted for The Felon because he promised to make IVF free. Instead she’s one of the thousands fired as Musk hacks away mindlessly at the federal government. At LGM, Cheryl Rofer suggests Cooper deserves sympathy rather than censure. She’s young enough voting for the wrong candidate is understandable, she doesn’t seem to have paid much attention to politics (I agree with Rofer, it would be ideal to live in a country where there’s no penalty to ignoring politics). Doesn’t she deserve some compassion?
Someone on Bluesky made the same point about a young girl (distantly related to JD Vance) who’s been denied a heart transplant because her family is anti-vax: gloating or declaring “you fucked around, now you find out” is crueler than the family or the girl deserves (the issue is that we have a limited supply of transplantable organs, she’ll be on immunosuppressive drugs for life so without vaccines the odds are too high she’ll use up an organ and die anyway).
I have friends who are pretty bloodthirsty by this point: Republican voters have empowered The Felon to trash this country, they’re happy to see him wage war on LGBTQs and women. My friends are pissed, horrified to discover how quickly people sell out human decency to cut inflation (which wasn’t bad by historical standards — and the Felon of the United States has failed to bring it down). You want trans people dead, women in chains? Same back at you, buddy. I can’t say I blame them — the imprecatory psalms sound pretty damn good at times. Especially when you look at what’s going down:
•Musk’s bodyguards have arrest powers.
•Unsurprisingly Pam Bondi’s DOJ has dropped a discrimination suit against Musk’s SpaceX. And the DOJ is threatening Rep. Robert Garcia for daring to criticize Elon Musk. (while it’s not a government decision, I’ll note here that Twitter’s community notes feature frequently corrects Musk’s lies. The whiny snowflake and pretend free-speech champion doesn’t like that so he’s changing it.)
•Homeland Security is now open to spying on people based purely on their sexual orientation.
•FDA has canceled the usual meeting to decide which strains of flu to target with vaccines. This probably means no flu vaccine this fall which means RFK Jr. will kill more people. He’s also blocked trials of a covid vaccine pill. And despite promises of radical transparency he’s making his department less transparent. And his solution to the measles outbreak in Texas? Vitamin A.
•The Felon is taking Russia’s side in the invasion of Ukraine. And assuring us we needn’t worry about Putin. After all, how would it help Trump if we noticed how much his policies weaken us and thereby strengthen Russia?
I’m not comfortable taking pleasure in right-wing voters’ suffering. I can understand the desire for them all to die, but I can’t share it. I’d sooner live in a country that worked better for everyone, even awful people. That said, I’m not terribly sympathetic to people who brought their suffering on themselves (though Scott Lemieux offers an alternative view).
As several people pointed out in the comments on Rofer’s post, The Felon’s been on the political stage for a decade. For anyone who wanted to know what his second term is like — well we had the evidence. Admittedly some things came out of almost left field, like threatening to conquer Greenland and Canada, but FOTUS made plenty of barking-dog insane statements before. I’m surprised by how rapidly and blatantly FOTUS and Co-President Musk have moved to push everyone who’s not an outwardly straight white Christian man out of positions of authority but the direction was clear from the first time.
Plus, of course, some people consider the Felon’s anti-equality policies a plus. I don’t know if Cooper’s one of them but it’s certainly possible. In which case, no sympathy at all.
And no sympathy for the Republican Senators who’ve enabled this at every step. That includes Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, who voted faithfully for all of the WEI cabinet nominees (white, entitled, incompetent). They own RFK’s decisions, so they own the Texas measles outbreak which he will do nothing to stop. And other outbreaks.
Having no sympathy isn’t the same as wanting them to suffer. And as Robert Farley says, if someone realizes they blew it, however foolish they were, forgiveness should be an option — we want them voting our way (or at least not Republican) in 2026 and 2028 (assuming we have a shot at a fair election) if that’s possible (the article doesn’t raise the issue). I disagree with Liz Cheney on pretty much everything but I respect her for sticking her neck out and fighting the felon. I would never have expected to be on the same side as paleoconservative Bill Kristol but his Bulwark newsletter is willing to call a swastika a swastika.
I’m not sure where all that leaves us. I don’t think there’s one size fits all rule I can suggest for everyone. I’m not even sure where I stand, exactly. But it’s definitely something to be thinking about.
