That’s because the Trump administration is rewriting the disability eligibility rules, ostensibly to modernize the program, in ways that will make it even harder for aging blue-collar workers like Tincher to get benefits. Hundreds of thousands just like him would become ineligible for aid.
These changes would fall disproportionately on some of Trump’s most loyal supporters in red states. Most affected would be 50- to 60-year-olds without a high school or college education who have, for decades, toiled in physically grueling jobs, including coal mining, logging, and factory and construction work. The five states where the highest proportions of people rely on these benefits are West Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama. Unlike New York, California and a few others, these states do not have their own disability insurance programs for workers to turn to amid federal cuts.
Yes, I reserve the bulk of my sympathy, empathy, and compassion for the people who didn’t vote for Trump in the hopes that he’d be “hurting the people he need to be hurting”.
To be clear, I want to help even the half of people who did vote for this, but I still have little to no sympathy for those who wanted this to happen, just to other people and not themselves. I want policies that help everyone, including people not like me. That said, I’m not above taking satisfaction from those who voted for this; they either lack critical thinking or are so willfully ignorant to think that they’re one of “the good ones”. I want them to feel the pain of their decisions because it seems that experiencing that suffering personally is the only way they can develop any sort of empathy or understanding for their fellow citizens.