ColdMiser wrote:

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:
Kudos on the Blindtext. Very fitting. 

 ScottFromWyoming wrote:

Kurt sees himself as a righteous victim. It's a personality type. 

 kurtster wrote:
I'm sure you're the only one here who consistently refers to himself as the only one here who... {name your beleaguerment}. Funny thing is that it has never been true. 

 kurtster wrote:

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance pressured regulators to abandon a proposed federal rule to protect steelworkers and their communities from factories’ carcinogenic emissions, according to documents reviewed by The Lever. The final rules were weakened after Ohio Sen. Vance and other lawmakers intervened.

 kurtster wrote:

How did the Great Globalization and sending manufacturing jobs offshore - supported by Republicans (coupled with massive tax cuts) help Blue Collar workers?
Was the great devastation of the rust belt just a mirage? Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Illinois, et al would beg to differ.

 kurtster wrote:
You're happy to make assumptions, because you feel like everything is happening to you.   

You're blue-collar.  You live in the rustbelt.  You've been wronged, and you're angry.

But what if you're wrong? Put your emotions aside for a bit, and consider the possibility that you're being used by Trump.

What if your support of the Republicans is about their willingness to blame someone?  Blame anyone... but it's not your fault or bad luck... it's a conspiracy against you.

Trump is using that anger against you.  He says what you want to hear, and because you're emotionally attached to that message (finally... someone speaking for you), you believe he's on your side.  He's not.

I worked in a steel mill, a scrap yard, drove a box truck delivering furniture throughout the Northeast, worked for a tire repair shop (mostly truck tires), and did a few dozen short-term stints of very manual labor working for a temp agency.  In high school, at 5 am, I delivered newspapers junior and senior years.  I got a degree... and moved behind a desk, but I haven't forgotten what it was like to shower after work instead of before.  

I'm not out of touch with the world, and I appreciate the struggles across industries, with the current economy, and the frustration that comes with feeling like you can't get a break.  It's a common experience for 80%+ of us at some point.

But what I know is that Donald Trump isn't interested in fixing your problems... he's interested in using your frustration to get him elected so he can solve his own.   Middle and working class people are better off under Democratic leadership.  It's the story of finance since WWII.  Democrats elevate workers and the middle-class, and Republicans find ways to extract the wealth in the system for a very few.  It's a cycle, and it's consistent.

20 years ago I would have said "the lower the tax rate the better", but I've grown to appreciate that we have a duty to everyone that in this country to help out a bit.  I'm not talking about welfare state... I'm talking about reasonable measures to help people who need it.  Healthcare.  Food. Housing.  Especially kids.  Republicans want to rail about homelessness and crime, but then destroy any program that support them.  You respond to the anger, and ignore the neglect.  Sure many programs are inefficient and fail, but it doesn't mean we should stop.

I'm not a registered Democrat, and I find a lot of their policies insane... but they are at least trying to help others.  Republicans are not.

 kurtster wrote:




Seriously. Read your posts before you hit 'submit'. There has to be some part of you that knows this is ridiculous bullshit on so many levels. 

As soon as you're born, they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
'Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
'Til you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function, you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There’s  room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me
If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

 kurtster wrote: 
So based on the replies, there is no party that represents the blue collar / working class.

You all are out of touch with this world.

As being the only one here (of the regular participants) with any actual long term blue collar work experience, I will have to say that it is the repubs.

Yes, I do have a 30 year history of blue collar work in the heart of the blue collar rustbelt.

Trump issues many, many falsehoods at Black journalists’ convention

These are among the false claims Trump made at the Chicago event, in the order in which he made them, with links to earlier fact checks of them.

• He “saved” historically Black colleges and universities
• Best president for Black Americans since Abraham Lincoln
• An invasion of “15, 16, 17 million” people
• Harris was the “border czar”
• Many migrants are from mental institutions
• The crime rate of other countries is going down
• The worst inflation in 100 years
• Trump was protected by the Presidential Records Act
• Biden was ruled “incompetent” in his presidential records case
• Democrats allow the killing of babies after being born
• “Everyone” wanted Roe v. Wade overturned
• Drilling will reduce inflation
• Grocery bills are up 60 percent
• U.S. has more oil than any other country.

 kurtster wrote:
You're so hung up on blaming others who "have more"... money, education, power, perceived opportunity... elites, the establishment, the mainstream... that you can't see that you're being used.

So we know... what group are you part of?  Average Joe?  Middle-class?  Laborer? 

Whatever your response, Donald Trump has tapped into your insecurities. He has you convinced that your way of life is under threat, and the "elites" have executed a plan to screw you in favor of everyone not like you.  Immigrants and anyone who might get help from a DEI policy are your mortal enemies.  They are destroying everything you worked your entire life to create, including America itself.   His rhetoric often takes you back to a time you believe was better, stirring up nostalgia for traditional values and social norms that you feel are sadly fading away.  It's a lie.  You're being used.  

His populist style paints him as a champion for the common man and woman, claiming he’s there to “clean up Washington” and fight for the working class. You believe he can do this because he's a successful billionaire who can get things done.  This champion image is so powerful that you overlook the fact that his most popular policies don’t benefit you economically. His tax cuts don't help you... they undermine the government at your expense.  You wonder why Musk and the others noted by Islander support him... it's because he knows how to screw you and have you asking for more.  

You dismiss Project 2025 because he told you to... because he knows that he doesn't have to do anything that he says once he's elected.  What's sad is that you know better.   

Do you believe Trump doesn't know anything about Project 2025?

 islander wrote:

 kurtster wrote:

I've had some success. Enough that you would normally celebrate me. But I'm perfectly willing to admit that luck and circumstance played a big part, so it doesn't fit your 'meritocracy' lens and that makes you uncomfortable.  I'm still working, btw. I probably do more blue collar stuff than you do on a regular basis (had to be really careful moving a heavy battery this week so I didn't dislodge a sanitation hose next to my head, how's that for 'elite' for you?). 

Let's see, Peter Theil, Elon Musk, Jamie Dimon, Bill Ackman, the Adelsons, David Sacks, Donald himself.... where are the billionaires lining up?  The repubs as 'working class' is all marketing (Kid Rock grew up in a mansion and was rich before he sang his first note), and you are eating it up. Yeah, we're the 'sheeple', whatevs.

 islander wrote: 
You're firmly a part of the establishment I speak of.  You are clueless when it comes to the what it is like to be or live a blue collar life.

So tell me, just who does represent the working class these days if not the repub party ?

 kurtster wrote:

Trump = working class? Do you even read stuff before you post?  The man has a gold toilet. He poops in something worth more than your 401k and you think he represents you?

Trump was always of an idiot heritage, and he was only promoting an idiot heritage. I didn’t know he was a moron until a number of years ago, when he happened to turn into a moron, and now he wants to be known as a moron. So I don’t know, is he an idiot or is he a moron?

 kurtster wrote:
The working class hasn’t taken over the Republican party. Trump has. You all are along for whatever ride he decides to take you on. You’ve subjugated the will of the party to the will of the individual.
 
If you believe otherwise, you’re deeper down the rabbit hole than anyone can imagine.

 Beaker wrote: 
Yep.  The present repub party has changed.  The abandoned / working class have finally taken over and are doing something with this newly acquired leverage.  Much to the displeasure of the establishment on both sides.

Those now "recovering republicans" didn't leave the party, they have been cast out.  The neo's, both cons and libs have been sent packing.