RUTHFULLY YOURS

It seems everyone but the Democrats have had a bit of fun with President Joe Biden’s insulting characterization of former President Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage” (and, yes, he did mean Trump’s supporters, not Trump himself). Not so funny is what it shows about the Democrats, who seem to loathe any American who doesn’t support them.

It started with a bad joke told by a comedian, one of 30 warmup speakers at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, who referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” Trump didn’t make the remark, nor did he approve of it.

“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez said.

But in a phone call with an Hispanic voter group, Biden unleashed a tirade: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his (Trump’s) supporters,” he said. “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it is un-American.”

In fact, Trump demonized no one. But Biden did, namely the 74 million-plus people who voted for Trump in the last election, and the millions more who will vote for him this time around.

But given lemons, Trump once again made lemonade, proudly wearing a garbage worker’s fluorescent vest to his next rally as he rode shotgun in a gleaming garbage truck. It underscores what many still are finding out: No one works harder to attract working-class American voters than Trump.

With mere days to go in the campaign pitting Democrat and current Vice President Kamala Harris against febrile campaigner Trump, the former president’s decision to don a worker’s vest might turn out to be a masterstroke. In one move, he showed his ability to have fun with a stupid remark, a sharp contrast to the grim, angry campaign of make-believe “joy” that is Harris’ campaign.

If Trump wins the presidency again, it will largely be thanks to the “garbage” people in this country. You know, the ones who fix our cars, repair our homes, stop our leaky plumbing, build our transportation and communications infrastructure, and work in the nation’s factories to build the things we want and need to improve our lives. And, yes, also those who take out our trash.

These are the people Biden called “garbage.” It’s a lesson in how the left views America. The essence of progressivism is that highly educated elites know what’s best for the country. Average Americans are merely sheep, ready to be herded by their elite betters.

This is where Trump’s support comes from.

It’s working-class, non-urban, non-college-age voters and disgruntled minorities who are fueling Trump’s rise, as data from our I&I/TIPP Poll has shown. The Democrats’ base is weakening, leading to panic in the party’s leadership.

Based on the 2020 election outcome, Trump’s support among women (contrary to media spin) has increased roughly 2 percentage points. Among blacks it’s up by 4 percentage points, and among Hispanics, by 10 percentage points.

Trump currently also holds 50%-plus of those with a high school education and those with some college, while having just 40% of college-educated voters and those with advanced degrees.

The numbers show a widening divergence between voters in the elite managerial and professional class, and average workaday Americans who show up, do their job well, and go home to a family.

As demographic evidence of this split, Trump is running behind in big cities, where voters remain solidly Democratic, but he’s neck-and-neck with Harris in the suburbs, and maintains a whopping 2-1 advantage in rural America.

Meanwhile, his support among union members shows Trump is currently about three percentage points above the 40% of the union vote he received in 2020.

The point here is that Trump has become a champion of the working class. Those who haven’t gotten the big bucks, the stock options, and the lavish perks of modern corporate work culture, but rather get paid hourly to do dirty, hard labor.

You know, “garbage.”

The Democratic Party couldn’t be clearer in its disdain for those who have decided to vote for Trump, rather than Harris. Rather than acknowledging and criticizing Biden’s denigrating remarks, they first defended him and then, with the aid of the media, lied about what he said.

After vowing to “unify” America after his election in 2020, Biden has instead opted to demonize non-Democratic voters, the “deplorables” as Hillary Clinton calls them.

As the news site Just the News noted, “the Democrats’ penchant for smearing MAGA supporters and other dissident groups has become a central part of their messaging as Trump appears poised to make a return to the White House.”

With two assassination attempts made on his life and his fervent MAGA followers vilified daily by the so-called mainstream media, Trump’s response to Biden’s word-belch perhaps put it best: “You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans,” he told supporters at a North Carolina rally Wednesday. “And you can’t be president if you hate the American people.”

Next Tuesday, Democrats might find out just how true those words are.