In late 2003 and early 2004 or so, after we illegally invaded Iraq in 2003, there were hints that things were not going well and it seemed that a civil war was brewing due to our invasion and mismanagement. From that time on, the small group of peace activists who had been saying all along how wrong it was to invade and not to allow weapons inspectors more time to complete their work began growing in number. Hundreds of thousands of people started gathering in different places to display our strong opposition to this horrific war. Increasingly, many of the voices at these protests were from people who said they originally supported the invasion, but now were against it. Those were always powerful voices and I was thankful for their change of heart and change of position.
We are barely a month into this new administration and buyer’s remorse is already very readily apparent. Barely a month in! Several polling places tracked trump’s approval numbers from Day 1 to the second month and what they found was that his approval ratings – which were already historically low to begin with – were tanking anywhere from 5 to 13 points! The bottom line is that this guy really sucks at being president and more and more people are seeing this.
Not surprisingly, some of those who voted for trump are regretting it. Now, this happens with every candidate. But it usually takes longer than a month! People already realize that this guy is really bad at this job. Like historically bad.
And then I watched this story on CNN.
It’s the story of a small place in Western Pennsylvania, Butler County, where about 700 civil servants serve the federal government processing federal workforce retirements. It is also a big trump place. He won this part of Pennsylvania walking away. And there really aren’t any surprises about what trump planned to do. Kamala’s campaign did huge ad buys all over Pennsylvania explaining Project 2025 and trump’s plans to decimate the federal government. It was widely known.
Well, for whatever reason, folks didn’t pay attention. It turns out that at a press gaggle in the Oval Office, when Musk’s son was crawling all over him and then telling trump to go away (lucky kid), Musk made several statements about shutting down this particular work place in Butler County. And as expected, that kind of freaked out the 700 people who work there and the entire town which depends on this place.
The CNN story interviews several town people – all of whom knew what trump was going to do and voted for him anyway. One person says that she knew he was going to fire federal workers and was obviously supportive of his plan because she voted for him, but did not know he was going to fire HER. And now she regrets her vote. She was cool with trump ruining peoples’ lives – just not her life.
I listened to this CNN story and frankly, I was angry. I was angry that people listened to what he was going to do and now that he is doing it – barely a month in – they all of a sudden are surprised? I was angry that some trump voters are ok with the suffering and chaos he causes in other peoples’ lives, but then get concerned when he does it to them.
My initial reaction, like many others, is to have little compassion or empathy for them. Frankly, there is a little bit of righteousness to this anger.
But only a little bit.
You see, this is where my belief in compassion and empathy are really being put to the test. I have compassion and empathy for undocumented families who are being torn apart by state-sponsored terror from ICE raids. I have compassion and empathy for the thousands of civil servants who literally are servants of the US public – and world – and who are unfairly and illegally being fired. I have compassion and empathy for the unhoused in DC whom trump and, sadly, the DC Mayor, Mayor Bowser, both want to criminalize and/or warehouse rather than serve.
But the world that I want to live into is a place where ALL people – even remorseful trump voters – freely receive my compassion and empathy – AND advocacy. I need to fight against the closing of the federal offices in Butler County – in trump country – as hard as I fight alongside the amazing people who work at USAID.
The truth is, none of us deserves compassion and empathy. We have all done stuff that should disqualify us in some way. But God loves us – ALL of us – just the same. God is exorbitant in pouring out compassion and empathy. We should as well. That’s the place I want to live in. And to build that place right here and right now means that I have that compassion and empathy and advocacy for the good people in Butler County.
And that’s what I’m gonna do.
