The Washington Post over the weekend reported that some people who voted for President-elect Donald Trump are worried that their own government benefits could be on the chopping block now that he's heading back to the White House.
MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown has noticed a good deal of schadenfreude about these reports from Trump critics — but he's urging people on the left to resist the temptation to relish MAGA fans' misery.
"The recent tales of early-stage regret and fear are prompting a sense of grim satisfaction from some on the left... Whatever happens, these Trump supporters will be getting what they deserve," he wrote Monday. "It’s hard for me to reach that conclusion, though. The schadenfreude that others are feeling or anticipating seems as hollow as the beliefs that Trump supporters projected onto him. As I see it, the problem with taking solace in the suffering of others in this case is that it still requires the suffering of others."
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Brown rejected arguments that Trump supporters had no agency in making their decisions and he acknowledges the temptation to simply mock them for their poor decisions.
However, he reminded readers that it won't only be Trump supporters who will be hurt by his stated policy aims.
"The hardships that Americans will face should Republicans succeed in decimating the social safety net will be immense," he concluded. "There’ll be no comfort that some of the people crashing to the ground thought they were only voting to have that net taken from others. After all, they were told that they’d be able to fly just fine without it."
