Trump and the waitress...

[jon-nyc]

He’ll get the Mexican dishwashers to pay for it.

[Jolly]

I think it's brilliant.

Biden's for the little guy and gal. Why not help the single mom waiting tables in Scranton?

[Axtremus]

The service sector: "Let's relabel all income as 'tips'!"

The billions of stock options and performance bonuses for CEOs? Those are just tips for good service.

[Jolly]

@Axtremus said in Trump and the waitress...:

The service sector: "Let's relabel all income as 'tips'!"

The billions of stock options and performance bonuses for CEOs? Those are just tips for good service.

I think those are pretty easily addressed. How does your reluctance to help common people play in politics?

[Axtremus]

@Jolly said in Trump and the waitress...:

How does your reluctance to help common people play in politics?

Has led me to support things like single-payer universal healthcare, wealth taxes, progressive taxation (a.k.a. "tax the rich"), labor unionization, medical costs/pricing transparency, banning of "junk fees," drug price negotiation by Medicare (and the states in general), right to repair, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the right to choose (a.k.a. "Pro-Choice"), student loan forgiveness, etc. Many people say these are political winners among the common people.

[Jolly]

Some of those things sound great to the common man, until you tell him what it costs and who's going to pay for it. Then suddenly, it doesn't play so well politically.

I think the winners you have are:

1. medical cost/pricing transparency
2. junk fee bans
3. right to repair

[LuFins Dad]

@Axtremus said in Trump and the waitress...:

@Jolly said in Trump and the waitress...:

How does your reluctance to help common people play in politics?

Has led me to support things like single-payer universal healthcare, wealth taxes, progressive taxation (a.k.a. "tax the rich"), labor unionization, medical costs/pricing transparency, banning of "junk fees," drug price negotiation by Medicare (and the states in general), right to repair, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the right to choose (a.k.a. "Pro-Choice"), student loan forgiveness, etc. Many people say these are political winners among the common people.

You know, the common guy doesn’t actually want single payer healthcare. They want to be able to afford to buy their own healthcare.

And Single Payer runs contrary to most of the other healthcare wishes you listed. Transparency never happens from government agencies and they are horrible at negotiating with drug companies.

[LuFins Dad]

@Axtremus said in Trump and the waitress...:

@Jolly said in Trump and the waitress...:

How does your reluctance to help common people play in politics?

Has led me to support things like single-payer universal healthcare, wealth taxes, progressive taxation (a.k.a. "tax the rich"), labor unionization, medical costs/pricing transparency, banning of "junk fees," drug price negotiation by Medicare (and the states in general), right to repair, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the right to choose (a.k.a. "Pro-Choice"), student loan forgiveness, etc. Many people say these are political winners among the common people.

And yet, Trump runs against many of those positions and is considered to be the favorite candidate of those common people. Maybe those many people saying they are political winners are wrong?

[Axtremus]

@LuFins-Dad said in Trump and the waitress...:

And yet, Trump runs against many of those positions and is considered to be the favorite candidate of those common people.

Trump lost the popular votes both times, bigly. They should tell you that the common people have mostly rejected Trump.

[Jolly]

Mostly California and New York.

The rest of the country, not so much.

[LuFins Dad]

@Axtremus said in Trump and the waitress...:

@LuFins-Dad said in Trump and the waitress...:

And yet, Trump runs against many of those positions and is considered to be the favorite candidate of those common people.

Trump lost the popular votes both times, bigly. They should tell you that the common people have mostly rejected Trump.

That doesn’t equate to common man… There’s no question that Trump won the “common man” vote. No college degree, manual labor, trades, farmers, mechanics, and yes, restaurant workers… That is/was a huge part of the Trump base.

[taiwan_girl]

@LuFins-Dad said in Trump and the waitress...:

There’s no question that Trump won the “common man” vote.

That is the playbook of a populist. They are all good about talking the talk.

[Jolly]

Funny, back when Trump was President, I had more groceries in my cart for the same amount of money

[Axtremus]

@LuFins-Dad said in Trump and the waitress...:

@Axtremus said in Trump and the waitress...:

...
Trump lost the popular votes both times, bigly. They should tell you that the common people have mostly rejected Trump.

That doesn’t equate to common man… There’s no question that Trump won the “common man” vote. No college degree, manual labor, trades, farmers, mechanics, and yes, restaurant workers… That is/was a huge part of the Trump base.

1. (A)U. Virginia's exit poll shows the "no college degree" votes split evenly 49%-49% between Trump and Biden. (B) Going by 2021 census data, 48.4% of adults over 25 years of age has a college degree; that proportion goes up to 63.3% if you include those with "some college but not a degree;" you need update your perception of the "common man" when it comes to recognizing one as such based on education attainment.

2. "Manual labor" - needs definition before we can debate (a) whether "manual labor" is characteristic of the "common man" and (b) whether this population supports Biden or Trump.

3. "Trades" - this article provides a tally (using BLS data) that says about 35 million people works in the "trades" in the USA. Out of a workforce of 168 million, "trades" make up around one fifth (1/5) of the American workforce. Again, you need to update your perception of the "common man" when it comes to recognizing one as such based on occupation.

4. "Farmers" - this category makes up less than 2% of the American workforce, and has been that way for a long time (see, for example, this reference). Again, you need to update your perception of the "common man" when it comes to recognizing one as such based on occupation.

5. "Mechanics" - this reference pegs the number of "mechanics" in the order of 600K, that's not even half a percent (<0.5%) of the American workforce. Again, you need to update your perception of the "common man" when it comes to recognizing one as such based on occupation.

6. "Restaurant workers" - the National Restaurant Association pegs the number of restaurant/food services workers at 15.5 million, or around 10% of the American workforce. Again, you need to update your perception of the "common man" when it comes to recognizing one as such based on occupation.

Tip: If you want to argue there is a certain subgroup called the "common man" carved out of the general population that you want to argue is more supportive of one candidate, you need to (1) clearly define the subgroup and (2) show that that subgroup supports one candidate more than the other in a statistically significant manner.

[Jolly]

Did your mother ever tie a pork chop around your neck?

[taiwan_girl]

@Jolly said in Trump and the waitress...:

Funny, back when Trump was President, I had more groceries in my cart for the same amount of money

And when President Carter was president, you had two or three shopping carts of groceries for the same amount of money when you were only able to get one cart or less when President Trump was president. LOL

(Just teasing you Jolly. I do undestand your point)

[George K]

Can someone explain to me how "populism" is different from "democracy?"

[taiwan_girl]

@George-K said in Trump and the waitress...:

Can someone explain to me how "populism" is different from "democracy?"

That is actually a very good question. LOL I think that most populists come to power through some sort of democracy. I think the Chavez in Venezuela is a good example. But then, they try and change the laws to keep themself in power etc. I am not real good on the history of Adolph Hitler but I think he was kind of a populist. His party came to the German Congress through voting (though they did not have a majority), but then changed the laws to make himself the supreme leader.

From Wikipedia

A political ideology that sees society as divided into a good people and an evil elite

(So, all politicians try and use this to some amount. But I do think that it fits President Trump. "I am for the working man, the common man. There is the "swamp" in DC that is evil and is ruining everything, etc.)

[LuFins Dad]

@Axtremus you really are that clueless, aren’t you?

[LuFins Dad]

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html

https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/whats-news/chasing-the-base-how-trump-won-over-michigans-white-working-class/4959bbf0-7358-40ac-9bee-431cc3b763be

https://www.deseret.com/politics/2024/05/17/american-middle-working-class-donald-trump/

Now the news links kept referring to white working class, but Trump is also making gains in black and Hispanic working class

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/06/biden-trump-tie-hispanic-black-younger-voters/73504174007/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/black-and-hispanic-voters-could-elect-trump-minorities-election-fcabeeb3

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/18/why-are-black-voters-backing-donald-trump-in-record-numbers