The inevitable wave of schadenfreude has already begun

The occasional article with anecdotes of Trump voters who are apparently horrified by what they have just done has already dropped. There will be more of this to come. Expect it. These articles, to the extent that they have more than a few grains of truth to them, will also show the limits of liberal tolerance, which will be a rude awakening to many. The unfortunate reality is that as someone who has immediate and extended family members and friends who are definitely in harm's way if the worst of this next Trump term transpires (and that is seemingly increasingly likely), I will find the subjects of these anecdotes to be entirely unsympathetic. As someone who has a transgender adult child facing the potential loss of their hormones and daughters who may find their birth control options severely restricted, I doubt it will be easy to sympathize with a Trump voter who just found out that his or her aunt who was an undocumented resident is being rounded up to be deported or found that a new Muslim ban is in place or that some member of the Trump family plans on capitalize on the destruction of Gaza by replacing the Palestinians who once called it home with luxury resorts for the well-heeled. I am sure there will be some folks who will be in a rude awakening when they find out that those tariffs really do make prices go way up rather than down. And their reward, aside from ending up suffering with the rest of us is contempt from the very people who might have been allies in better times. For my own sake, I will try to avoid pouring salt on their wounds, but I will note that I did try to warn anyone who would bother to listen and that it is a real shame that they didn't listen to me or the countless others who sounded the alarms early on in this election cycle. So, whatever excuse one might have for voting for Trump, it won't hold water. I doubt schadenfreude is especially productive, and is in all likelihood counterproductive, but it is a very normal human thing to do when faced with catastrophe viewing the diminished lives of those who foisted Trump back into the White House. In this toxic political and media environment, that is the best that can be expected.

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