Buyer's Remorse - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Last week, much was made by CNN and The Washington Post about Ryleigh Cooper, a young Michigan woman who was happy to cast her vote for Donald Trump, only to be fired from her position with the U.S. Forest Service as part of the purge of federal workers by billionaire Elon Musk and his cretins in the Department of Government Efficiency. (If you want to know how I feel about Trump, roly-poly wingman J.D. Vance and their raft of enablers, dust off your old The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan vinyl and listen to “Masters of War”.) Speaking with those media outlets, Cooper outlined her reasons for voting for Trump - paramount among them struggles with infertility and a glimmer of hope in Trump’s promise of free IVF - and said that she did, indeed, feel regret about her vote.

 

Cooper’s willingness to speak candidly on the issue led to ridicule, especially from those who hate Trump, who were quick, as so many people are, to get nasty online, with some even going so far as to wish her a childless future.

 

Now, I don’t have a whole lot of time for the vitriol being spread online or the idea of buyer’s remorse after voting for a convicted felon who tried to undermine democracy and is doing exactly what he said he was going to do. Nor do I have time for the spiking of the football happening at Cooper’s expense, but it does offer us an opportunity to discuss one of the central paradoxes at the heart of Trumpism, his Make America Great Again agenda and the rise in far-right support all around the world.

 

Cooper’s story, which is no doubt one of many though most will have a hard time with coming forward to admit they got it wrong, is an example of the lack of empathy at the root of this movement. It is a true every-man-for-himself, my-way-or-the-highway version of politics that will leave many people behind.

 

During his campaign, Trump was quite open in regards to slashing the federal workforce (all while promising to create more jobs - Trump contradicting himself? Well, I never), deporting people by the thousands, vilifying members of vulnerable populations and callously cutting off resources for those in need both in the U.S. and abroad. 

 

Trump following through on such things should not come as a shock. What changed? What changed, in this situation, is that he has hurt the one who voiced her support; bitten the hand that feeds. When it was others who would suffer at Trump’s hand, everything was fine and dandy. But, now that a Trump supporter has been burned, something’s gone wrong. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

 

The Cult of Trump, for those other than the ones so deeply ensconced that they’ll follow the guy off of a cliff, shows the dangers of acting selfishly; not thinking about other members of your community or your country when you cast your vote. And now people who will suffer at his hands will be looking for sympathy; the same sympathy for others they neglected to invoke when casting their vote.

 

Again, this is not to take aim at Cooper or anyone else who finds themself in this unenviable position, but an opportunity to look at politics in a different light. Perhaps voting for someone who wants to create a rising tide that lifts all boats because, as uncertainty and disruption become more and more a part of the world of politics, groups of voters who have spent so much time as the hammer may find themselves as the nail when greedy, personal interests take over for empathy and care.

 

An election is no time for navel gazing. Thinking beyond your four walls is an essential part of democratic responsibility.