Weaponized Empathy

Why are you a Democrat? 

Ask someone this and you'll get a myriad of responses. From being raised among Democratic parents to seeing firsthand the value of Democratic programs to understanding the importance of labor unions to wanting basic civil rights for historically underrepresented communities, each of us has at least one key reason for supporting the Democratic Party. For myself, as a millennial raised in a mixed political household, it wasn't until the election of Barack Obama that I firmly allied myself with the party. Seeing uniform Republican opposition designed to make Barack Obama fail angered me at a level I had never felt before. Seeing them cheer on his failures, and subsequently leading to a less prosperous country, was nothing short of treason in my eyes. By the time 2016 rolled around, I was all in for Hillary Clinton, not only for her, but to ensure Barack Obama's legacy by maintaining his legislative achievements. 

We all have our own story. And while the reasons for first joining the party vary, there are some common threads amongst Democrats today. As a whole, we understand our country's complicated history. We know that systemic injustice has kept people of color from advancing in this country. We know that White privilege is real and impacts how we see the world. We know that the overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants are stuck in a system that is intentionally designed to leave them in limbo. We know that sexism still exists and how it can be used against women in the political arena. We know climate change is real, vaccines work, our education system is chronically underfunded, and the Second Amendment is a relic of a time when loading a rifle took a minute and did not include easy access to AR-15s. All of these views serve as the basic ideology of today's Democratic Party, and all of these views are centered on one key emotion: 

Empathy. 

To be a Democrat today is to be empathetic. It's to understand that even though something might not affect you personally, it affects others. It's understanding the interconnectedness among you and your fellow Americans. Democrats don't mock the homeless man on the street; they think about the larger systemic issues that made that man homeless in the first place. Democrats don't fearmonger about fleeing migrants; they put together rapid response networks to provide food, clothing, and shelter for as many of these families as they can. Democrats don't immediately dismiss nonvoters; they work to register them, educate them, and get them to the polls to overcome historical barriers that have been put in place to silence their voices. Democrats understand how the 1619 Project came together and why it was such a threat to Republicans. Because when you understand real, true history, you understand why Republicans work tirelessly to maintain the current status quo and the White patriarchal structure.

But empathy has its limits. As we've seen over the past four-and-a-half months, the Leopards Eating Faces Party has been deliciously devouring countless individuals. From those who lost businesses due to the Trump tariffs to those who lost their jobs working at the VA to those who lost a beloved member of their community because they weren't one of "those" kind of undocumented immigrants, Republicans are experiencing firsthad what 75 million of us already knew: Donald Trump doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about anyone except himself. You were never part of his plan; you were only a willing pawn who filled in the oval next to his name on a ballot in November. Your 401(k) crashed when the Trump tariffs went into effect, and while the market briefly collapsed, Trump and his billionaire friends easily transferred tens of billions of dollars into their accounts through insider information and trading. If you think any part of the GOP's Big Beautiful Bill will better your life, I've got some Trump Steaks to sell you sitting in my basement refrigerator.

Of course, as Democrats have adopted this new mantra of reveling in the FAFO phase of GOP voters, we are now being accused of being heartless. Of enjoying others' pain. Of being sadistic. Of rooting for failure. Every time we add a leopard-eating-faces meme to a news story about a suffering Republican, the media comments that we are now no better than Republicans.

This is all by design. And that design is to put Democrats in a no-win situation. Because the media knows that we are empathetic. The media knows that we care about of fellow human beings. The media knows that Democrats have the type of historical understanding that will never allow Republicans to acknowledge systematic injustices. The media knows that Democrats being empathetic means they are kind and compassionate and largely avoid confrontation. An empathetic Democrat is docile and unlikely to cause a ruckus.

That's why we're starting to see the media call out Democrats over the past few weeks. Because for the first time in my lifetime, Democrats have reached the IDGAF stage. They are no longer playing nice. Republicans voted for this monster. Let them deal with the consequences. They have blood on their hands. The 75 million of us who did the right thing have a clear conscience. We understood the assignment. The 77 million who voted for Trump? They voted for this. They voted for pain and suffering and misery; they were simply hoping it would be for someone else. But when it comes to them in their own lives, well, that is schadenfreude at its finest. Democrats can still be empathetic to our people, while at the same time acknowledging that we feel zero empathy for anyone who cast a vote for America's Hitler.

Our media is panicking because Democrats are supposed to play nice. That's who we are and that is who we've always been. So when we reach the year 2025 and we have Democrats openly advertising that we are out of fucks to give, our media don't know how to respond. These new look Democrats scare them. We see it in how they try to portray Jasmine Crockett. You know, you just know, they want to create a chyron calling her the "angry Black lady." You just know they want to call out Congressman Jared Moskowitz for being "immature" during committee hearings. And let's not pretend like they aren't looking for something, anything, to bring down Hakeem Jeffries before he becomes the first Black Speaker of the House. 

For too long, Democrats brought a knife to this gunfight. But this is war. Literal war, with the future of our democracy at stake. We've always been the nice guys, and it served us well. But these are unprecedented times. Our opponents have no decency, values, or self-respect. They don't care about the truth. They don't care about public opinion. All they care about is consolidating their power. So when they get pwned by their own party, we as Democrats have to mock them. We have to meme them. Our media may call us cruel, but we know the truth.

And the truth is that Republicans deserve this.