By Lachlan McKenzie, for The Smouldering Pillbox Weekly
It all started, as these things so often do, with a tweet. Or maybe a screenshot of a tweet. Or maybe a screenshot of a screenshot of a tweet, slapped on a Facebook meme page sandwiched between a fake story about Biden banning meat and a picture of Trump Photoshopped as a swole Rambo Jesus.
The post was perfectly tragicomic: a digital headstone for the kind of voter who, mistaking politics for pro wrestling, cast a ballot not with their interests, but with their middle finger.
But was it real? Probably not. The account no longer exists. There’s no archive on Wayback or Politwoops, and even the brilliant sleuths of Reddit couldn’t prove its existence.
And yet – like Paul Bunyan or Peter Dutton’s human emotions – just because it’s myth doesn’t mean it’s meaningless.
🎭 Satire Becomes Sociology
Let’s get one thing clear: America (and its cultural satellites) are full of Suzannes. Whether they call into C-SPAN, post on Truth Social, or just yell in the Walmart pharmacy aisle, we’ve all seen the real-life versions.
Consider:
Jared from West Virginia: voted Trump, found out he’d lose Obamacare, said, “I might’ve made a mistake.”
The Iowa farmer who backed Trump’s tariffs – then went bankrupt when China stopped buying soybeans.
This infamous woman on CNN: crying over her husband’s deportation under Trump’s ICE raids. She had voted for him.
Suzanne is not alone. She’s just a meme-shaped mirror.
💉 Cutting Your Own Lifeline (To Own the Woke)
There’s a twisted logic behind these protest votes. People feel unheard, ignored, betrayed. Then along comes a man with gold toilets, shouting their anger back at them through a megaphone made of Big Macs and grievance.
“He says what I’m thinking!”
They cheer.
“He hates the people I hate!”
They swoon.
“He’s gonna kick their ass!”
He does – and theirs too, but they don’t notice until the eviction notice arrives.
And here’s the kicker: the policies were never hidden. Trump’s GOP told everyone – proudly – that they’d:
- Cut Medicaid
- Repeal the ACA
- Slash food stamps
- Privatise Social Security
- Gut disability access
- Deregulate insulin pricing
This wasn’t some smoke-filled backroom plan. It was in the campaign materials.
🖼 Meme as Modern Tragedy
The MAGA Suzanne tweet wasn’t a lie. It was a parable, shared with the intensity of a gospel in the Church of Consequences.
Other meme classics in the same genre:
“I didn’t think they’d come for me”
“My husband got deported even though he voted Trump!”
“My cousin needs Medicaid but we didn’t think he meant that kind of welfare!”
They’re all over Reddit threads like Leopards Ate My Face and meme accounts like @PatriotTakes.
They’re in the comments under articles like:
“Rural hospitals closing in record numbers”
“GOP voters shocked by Medicare Advantage fraud”
All boiling down to one tragic punchline:
“I just wanted to hurt them. I didn’t know it would hurt me.”
🐧 A Penguin on the Scale
In a recent cartoon that spread like wildfire, a woman sits in a shuttered rural hospital, wearing a “TRUMP 2024” cap and clutching her insulin prescription and a Medicaid termination notice. Her child holds a crayon sign:
“Mummy says we won!”
A penguin munches a Tim Tam on a broken hospital scale and mutters:
“Turns out the libs weren’t the only ones pissed off.”
That cartoon is fictional too. But the waiting rooms, the tears, the amputations – those are real.
💡 What Now?
The path forward isn’t gloating. That only fuels the resentment.
The solution is organising. Storytelling. Policy literacy. Getting people to understand that voting is not a team sport, it’s a survival strategy.
And when the next Suzanne cries out for help? We should listen. But we should also remind her gently:
“The next time you vote, maybe don’t aim the gun at your own foot.”
🔗 Real and Referenced:
Guardian: “Trumpcare May Cost Lives”
NYTimes: “Farmers Feel Tariff Burn”
NBC: “Rural Hospitals Shut Down”
Reddit: LeopardsAteMyFace
Twitter: @PatriotTakes
YouTube: CNN ICE Deportation Interview
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The fact that all these dumbed down, Murdoch-manipulated, homophobic, racist, rusted-on misogynistic and self-serving RWNJs voted for that totally deluded, callously inhumane, megalomaniacal narcissist, Donald Trump, who lied, lied and lied, promised them the world then, almost immediately, did a 180 degree and betrayed them ALL is not surprising – it was INEVITABLE. These Trump-infected fools chose to forget that Trump is not only a recidivist pathological liar, a dangerously undemocratic born-to-rule fascist, an inept conman who is a declared SIX TIMES’ BANKRUPT but, also, a CONVICTED CRIMINAL whose betrayal, destruction and total defundment of EVERYTHING Americans value comes under the appropriate heading of: KARMA !!
Trump’s recent hysterical monologues about invading Greenland (a Danish protectorate), referring to the independent nation of Canada as the 51st State of America, his vile vindictive attacks against ANYONE who justifiably criticises him (which now includes his ex-pal, the billionaire Elon Musk) PLUS the fact that Trump has shown a condescending contempt for America’s Constitution, a shocking disloyalty to (ONCE) long-held American allies like Canada and the AUKUS Treaty (between Australia, the UK and the USA) by scoffing PROVES that Trump is now a completely out-of-control, mentally unstable megalomaniacal lunatic!
FFS, America, DUMP TRUMP as a matter of urgency and make SERIOUS moves to have this monstrous psychopath IMPEACHED (yet again) before he initiates WW3 !!!
It has been reported that holdout Republicans who opposed the Big Beautiful Bill changed their votes to “yes” after Trump informed them that he would issue Executive Orders to fine tune the enforcement of the Bill which they would find more to their liking, once it was enacted,
This is really quite alarming in that the President is telling these legislators to just vote for the poorly formulated Bill and he would then change it to suit once it was in force and in the process entirely corrupt the carefully crafted legislative process adopted by the Congress and committee system, designed to ensure the integrity of these legislative processes.
So, under the Trump style administration, the Congress literally becomes a rubber stamp to the whims of the President. Something which under our system of governance cannot happen or can it? The weak link in our system is not within the parliament but in the powers vested in the King’s Representative. We saw under the previous ‘Liberal’ government how an ambitious prime minister and a compliant Governor General can secretly grant additional powers and ministerial portfolios to the prime minister without the knowledge or consent of the Executive [Cabinet], the incumbent ministers, the parliament or the people of Australia.
Something we need to be eternally vigilant of until we can finally rid ourselves of the last vestiges of imperial rule and dump the office of Governor General.
@ Terry Mills: About time Australia as a sovereign nation stood on our own two feet and cut the apron strings to the most dysfunctional family in Europe, half a world away (and even then too close; no more Royal Visits are Australian expense, thanks).
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Scummo of the five Secret Ministries was a wonderful scam ….. did he claim the five Ministerial allowances during his term in five offices; that would be a real financial bonus.
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But you overlook the apparent treasons of the gg David Hurley who was offered $17 MILLION PER YEAR for a ”leaderhsip Training Course”for young Australians (read Young Liberal supporters ober 55 years) ….. was this the inducement used to corrupt the position of gg?? When Will the NACC investigate this rotten corruption??
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Niall Ferguson, the English economic historian predicts that the OBBB will cause American debt repayments to increase to more than defence spending, the point when an emppire begins to collapse. May commentators beleive this cannot happen fast enough.
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Meanwhile, the BRICS trade organisation is moving to ignore the $US as the international currency for international trade payments, The US Treasury Bond Rate is steadily climbing, while Putin & the TACO Trumpery handler in the White House make sure that Ukraine continues to go in favour of Russia by restricting the flow of weapons from the American armaments industry to Ukraine.
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We live in interesting times ….. and being shackled to the USA (Universal Surveillence Always) is NOT in the best interests of Australian voters.
This article could be real. The sentiments certainly ring true. A year and a half to the mid-terms when those experiencing buyers remorse get to change their votes, if they still have one and if Trump hasn’t managed to rule out elections.
Don’t forget the sacking of Gough Whitlam