For these unfamiliar, the “leopards ate my face” meme refers to individuals who endure the implications of political events or insurance policies they supported electorally. It stems from this basic tweet:
Fairly merely, it’s schadenfreude, and because of Donald Trump’s voters, we shall be swimming in it over the approaching 4 years.
No modern-era president did extra for organized labor than Joe Biden. Amongst different issues, he was the primary president to stroll a picket line, bailed out the pension for 600,000 Teamsters at a taxpayer’s value of $36 billion, helped radicalize billionaire Elon Musk by excluding him from an electrical-vehicle summit on the obvious behest of the United Auto Employees union, elevated funding for the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, and stocked that board with labor advocates.
In return, the Teamsters refused to endorse a presidential candidate, and the union’s president, Sean O’Brien, spoke on the Republican Nationwide Conference, and 45% of labor households voted for Trump, in contrast with 40% in 2020, in response to exit polls.
In the meantime, Trump mentioned this to Elon Musk: “I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So every one of you is gone.’” And Undertaking 2025 is an anti-union corporatist’s moist dream.
In different phrases, the leopards will quickly feast.
One of many election’s most weird developments was that many Muslim Individuals deserted the Democratic ticket for each Trump and Inexperienced Social gathering candidate Jill Stein, largely as a result of Biden administration’s help for Israel in its battle towards Hamas. In actual fact, Arab-majority Dearborn, Michigan, went from a 69% Biden majority in 2020 to giving Vice President Kamala Harris simply 36% of its vote this November. Trump received 42%, and Stein received 18%. Boy, did they ship a message for peace!
In actual fact, the leopards are already eating out on this one. Reuters reported this on Saturday:
U.S. Muslim leaders who supported Republican Donald Trump to protest towards the Biden administration’s help for Israel’s battle on Gaza and assaults on Lebanon have been deeply upset by his cupboard picks, they inform Reuters.
“Trump won because of us and we’re not happy with his secretary of state pick and others,” mentioned Rabiul Chowdhury, a Philadelphia investor who chaired the Abandon Harris marketing campaign in Pennsylvania and co-founded Muslims for Trump.
These individuals are so devoid of frequent sense that they’re begging Biden to assist them earlier than Trump takes workplace. But the explanation Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s far-right prime minister, ignored Biden’s peace efforts all 12 months was exactly as a result of he wager that Trump could be reelected, giving him a fair friendlier U.S. authorities to let him do no matter he wished. And these Arab voters performed proper into this clear scheme.
Rural America has been the bedrock of MAGA help. This 12 months, 64% of rural voters went for Trump, and simply 32% for Harris. And the nonprofit information outlet Examine Midwest finds that Trump gained over 77% of the favored vote, on common, within the nation’s most farming-dependent counties. So that you know the leopards are hungrily circling that crowd.
NPR writes about alarm within the farm trade over each Trump’s proposed tariffs and his nominee to guide the Division of Well being and Human Providers nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A former head of Missouri’s Farm Bureau known as the Trump-Kennedy pairing as an “unholy alliance.”
On the tariffs, NPR writes:
A examine launched final month by the Nationwide Corn Growers Affiliation discovered a tariff-driven commerce battle with China might value U.S. soybean and corn farmers as a lot as $7.3 billion in annual manufacturing worth.
“This burden is not limited to the U.S. soybean and corn farmers who lose market share and production value,” the examine’s authors predicted. “There is a ripple impact across the U.S., particularly in rural economies where farmers live, purchase inputs, utilize farm and personal services, and purchase household goods.”
Democrats must oppose the inevitable taxpayer-funded efforts to bail out farmers affected by Trump’s financial insurance policies. Bear in mind, farming counties closely backed Trump on common. In the event that they wish to begin voting out their elected Republican officers, we will revisit. However there’s no cause for Democrats to repeatedly mitigate the implications of these voters’ poor electoral decisions.
And talking of poor decisions, what in regards to the immigrants who supported and/or voted for Trump? The leopards simply can’t consider their luck. Examples abound, like this immigrant household who thinks Trump gained’t go after their undocumented relations as a result of they aren’t “criminals,” or this undocumented Guatemalan migrant who thinks he’s secure as a result of “Trump wants to deport those who do bad things. … I haven’t broken any laws.”
And it’s not simply Latinos. Arabs shall be closely focused, as nicely as Trump-loving Filipinos.
How about all these girls who voted for abortion-rights amendments whereas voting for Republicans who oppose these exact same rights? Harris received 43% of the vote in Florida, but the state’s abortion-rights poll initiative received 57% of the vote (it wanted 60% to cross). In Arizona, an abortion-rights poll initiative received almost 62% of the vote, whereas Harris received slightly below 47%. That’s lots of people who help a proper that Republicans have vowed to get rid of. that gained’t finish nicely.
And prepare for brand spanking new headlines like this one from February 2017: “She voted for Trump. Now she fears losing the Obamacare plan that saved her life.” In any case, shortly earlier than the election, Home Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged that Republicans plan to kill the Inexpensive Care Act.
Amazingly, eliminating ACA subsidies and different such packages serving to out low-income Individuals will most have an effect on Republican voters. Of the 30 states with the lowest family earnings, Trump gained 28 of them, in response to information compiled on Wikipedia. Of the 20 states with the very best earnings, Trump gained three.
From Social Safety cuts to curbs on press freedoms, and from increased grocery costs to raw-milk sicknesses, and to say nothing of the return of measles, polio, whooping cough, and different once-eradicated ailments—these subsequent 4 years shall be terrible. And people bearing the brunt of the awfulness shall be disproportionately Trump voters.
And the remainder of us? For now, all we will do is look on and ask each time a leopard takes a chunk, “Is this what you voted for?”
Some individuals are too far gone and can say “Yes!” and blame Democrats for his or her unhappy lot in life. Good for them. Trump will at all times have his 20-30% deplorable base. However the remainder of them? We are able to remind them there’s a political different, each in 2026 and 2028. (Trace: Calling them silly and racist gained’t do the job.)
There aren’t any capital-D Democratic guardrails to mitigate the results of Trumpism. The very best we will do is see this as a chance for individuals to see what it actually seems to be like, and plan for higher days forward.
