Under Trump worker's purchasing power went up 7% under Biden down 2%. Under Trump poverty dropped to 10.5% (the lowest level in more than half a century), under Biden it is above the level it was during the pandemic. Unemployment hit 3.5% before the pandemic, it is higher than that now.
Most workers are interested in more jobs (check), higher wages (check), and a growing economy (check). Trump's ideology is all about that, he focuses on growing the economy and constraining the supply of labor and imports. Those are very "populist" positions.
Regarding individual rights and restrictions on federal power, Trump's three Supreme Court nominees have consistently acted to protect individual freedoms and push issues like abortion which involve two persons to be resolved by elected legislatures and not appointed justices. Note, what the court did not do was issue an alternative judicial law governing abortions.
Trump is an opportunist, who delivered on what many citizens wanted. While you call him a traditional GOP corporate shill, most of the NeoCons, who historically represented the wealthy and corporate America have joined the Democratic party. The exceptions like Bush, Cheney and Romney, who are in the camp of those "traditional Republicans" are not Trump fans.
Follow the money. You might not like Trump, but his support is coming "from the people", not corporate America or the wealthy.
https://fortune.com/2024/07/22/kamala-harris-endorsements-wall-street-billionaires-donors/
When billionaires and big-hitters are declaring a "clarion call for democracy", it is time to grab your wallet. I don't support socialism, but there is something wrong with states whose policies over time have led to massive income inequality...
The U.S. national Gini index has risen from 0.46 in 2006 to 0.486 in 2022, peaking in 2014 at 0.49. (note: it peaked under Obama).
An increase in the Gini index value represents a shift towards further inequality.
New York (Gini index = 0.5208), Connecticut (0.5008), Massachusetts (0.4975), California (0.4953), and Louisiana (0.4915) were the states with the highest Gini coefficients in 2022; Washington, D.C. (0.5111) had the second largest value, behind only New York.
Says a lot, numbers don't lie.
The states above for the most part did not suddenly turn from red to blue states. Instead, most have been blue states for decades and whatever Democrats are peddling isn't working out for the average guy.
I live in California, and I can say with certainty, the Democratic policies in our state have really hurt workers and small business owners to the point they are moving away, and our middle class is hollowing out.
Workers get it. When you look at where Republican support and Democratic support is coming from, you either make the elitist claim that regular people are deplorable and stupid or regular people have figured out the left was using them.
Like many ex-Democrats, the last time I recognized the Democrat party as the "party of the people" was under Bill Clinton. Obama sought the praise of the world and sold workers down the tubes to gain it. Biden has always been a puppet and when he outlived his usefulness, the elite replaced him.
