• inclementimmigrant@lemmy.worldOP
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    10 days ago

    Now if Democrats were politically savvy, which they aren’t, and could actually understand the average American, they’d be hammering this point about Republicans not bringing down prices until the next century.

    • aramis87@fedia.io
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      10 days ago

      That would require the help of the media, and we all know that’s not going to happen.

        • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 days ago

          Where’ve you been? It’s been called out since its inception, and ramping up in intensity as time goes on and it gets worse.

          It literally just makes them watch harder because “if they hate it so much it must be true!”

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            9 days ago

            I guess I should have been more specific. The US government should have been forced to sue to shut it down at some point on behalf of American interests. Then all of that should have been public.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      The problem is that Dems are beholden to the truth. They probably couldn’t *bring down grocery prices either because it doesn’t work like that, so they can’t hold the other party to it either.

      • orcrist@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        I don’t think what you said is clear, but to the extent that it is, I feel like it doesn’t make sense.

        The Democrats don’t need to lie in order to point out that Trump was being a lying piece of s*** when he talked about bringing down prices. That’s true, they can quote him time and again, and media that is sympathetic to the Democrats could do the same if it chose to, but it won’t.

        Also, many Democratic politicians and centrist media are not people or companies that I would particularly describe as highly truthful. They say true things a lot more than Donald Trump does, but that’s a rather low bar.

        Finally, there are so many obvious things that Democratic politicians could do if they were serious about addressing the problem with expensive groceries. What if they push to raise the minimum wage and key it to the cost of living? What if they bust up the corporations that dominate the grocery store and food distribution industries? I feel like both of those could greatly impact the price of food.

        • someguy3@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Ok let’s play this out.

          Dems say “Trump didn’t bring down grocery prices. He lied.” It really doesn’t accomplish much.

          The message people want is “Trump didn’t bring down grocery prices. He lied. We would have brought them down.” Dems can’t say that because they know bringing prices down is hard af, prices are sticky, and there’s a good chance they wouldn’t have been successful. They may have, but there’s no guarantee and they know it. Because that’s how economics work. Dems can’t say that message because they are beholden to the truth.

          What they are left with is the much weaker message of: “Trump didn’t bring down grocery prices. He was unsuccessful. We would have tried to resolve the supply chain issues, and would pushed for higher wages indexed to cost of living, oh and investigate price fixing by companies.” It’s weak, wordy, and relies on mechanisms that people don’t care to hear about. They have to tip toe around what they can say because they are beholden to the truth.

          • orcrist@lemm.ee
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            9 days ago

            No, they aren’t beholden to the truth. Many of them lie a lot.

            If the Dems have legislation, they can float it and then either it advances or not, depending on everyone else. It’s not a “would”. It’s a “we are trying right now, but the Republicans are blocking it because they like high prices”… Why would you ask the Democrats to apologize for the existence of Congress as whole? It makes no sense. People understand who has the majority and the White House.

            • someguy3@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              They are beholden to the truth. To word it differently if it helps: they have to tell the truth, they have to be accurate, they have to explain reality, they have to explain how things work and why things don’t work. It’s the same reason left media doesn’t hold a candle to right wing media. The right wing media can twist, misportray, and outright lie. But the left media can’t, they are beholden to the truth.

              I mean look at your reply. No offence, but it’s the exact wordy reply to jump though all the hoops in order to be accurate that I’m talking about. It that doesn’t hit. “We are trying” doesn’t hit, people don’t want that weak talk. “Republicans are blocking”, guess what people don’t want explanations, they want results. “Because they like…” holy cow you’ve lost everyone because they don’t want to know about mechanisms, they want elementary speak like Trump does. Congress and how it works? Holy cow. People. do. not. care. People. do. not. understand. Add it all up and everyone has tuned it out. You are grossly overestimating how much people know and think. This is why Dem messaging sucks, they have to jump through all this just like you did (because they are beholden to the truth and being accurate) and the message doesn’t hit.

              I think I’ve said everything I can, it’s just repeating.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Further propagating the misinformation that the President has any reasonably effective way to lower grocery prices? Nixon’s grocery price fixing was an unmitigated disaster. An Executive Order is the only tool in the President’s toolbox for controlling grocery prices without congressional legislation. Biden couldn’t lower prices in 2020, just as Trump can’t lower them in 2024.

      POTUS is responsible for many important things. The price of a bottle of Coke is not one of them.

      • David J. Shourabi Porcel@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        Presidents and administrations might not be able to dictate specific prices, but they can and do enact laws and regulations that influence or even define the economy. Trump’s proposed tariffs are expected –not just by economists, but by markets, as seen after the election– to raise prices and, if they are enacted and result in the predicted outcome, fingers should be pointed at his Orangeness.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          The President does not create laws, Congress does. The President can repeal laws, which doesn’t help in this context.

          Tariffs are not laws. They are an additional tax, and you’re correct in stating that they certainly won’t lower prices.

          • Fandangalo@lemmy.world
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            10 days ago

            The tariff establishes the market floor. Trump can enact tariffs without congress. It will be setting the economy on several market vectors.

            If you don’t know how it works, don’t post troll content. #NotFeedingFurther #BrandolinisLaw

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              No additional tariff is capable of lowering a product’s price. It’s simply a way to give domestic production a competitive advantage without them lowering their prices.

              My point is about the President’s limitations on fixing or lowering grocery prices, not raising them.

      • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 days ago

        Apart from the fact that he literally said he would, sure. Completely ignore all the claims made, and there’s no expectation that they would bring down grocery prices.

        Of course that’s only if you ignore the things they said, with their mouths, while being recorded.

      • Tinidril@midwest.social
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        10 days ago

        The Republicans have the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the Presidency. Trump can either lead his party to deliver for the American people, or he can’t. If executive orders are all he can do, then he really is a failure.

        As for the powers of the executive, he may not have any direct ability to dictate prices, but tariffs and antitrust are pretty significant tools. If Trump’s FTC allows the Albertsons Kroger merger that Biden’s FTC blocked, then we’ll know he never intended to do anything about grocery prices.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          Currently, yes. Republicans have the trifecta. They could affect grocery prices, but I don’t see Republicans infringing on ‘free enterprise’ like that.

          The point I initially made is that the President alone cannot do anything to fix grocery costs without a systemic meltdown, so voters shouldn’t even be casting their presidential ballot on this topic.

          • Tinidril@midwest.social
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            9 days ago

            It’s laughable that you still think Republican politicians actually believe in anything as high minded as “free enterprise”. That’s just the grift dude. Maybe some Republicans, 50+ years ago, but that ended a long time ago. They believe in whatever vaguely conservative sounding rationalization will make the most money for their sponsors. It’s no coincidence that red states being home way more federal spending than blue states. Farm subsidies yo! You think that’s Democrats? Trump massively increased subsidies the last time his idiotic trade wars almost wiped out farmers.

            But, taking your naivete at face value, if Republicans don’t believe in distorting markets, then why the fuck did Trump promise to bring prices down? Why did he blame prices on Biden?

            Grocery prices have little to nothing to do with free enterprise. Between farm subsidies, fuel subsidies, American military interventions to secure foreign resources, and externalities, the whole thing is a very bloody racket.

            If you’re not sure if a Republican is being sincere or running a grift, they’re running a grift. If you’re sure they are sincere, you are wrong. Their job is to grift.

            • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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              10 days ago

              Added scare quotes to clarify sarcasm. Yes, the valve only goes one way with Republicans. They won’t regulate private enterprise in a way that adversely impacts domestic businesses.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        10 days ago

        POTUS is responsible for many important things. The price of a bottle of Coke is not one of them.

        I kept asking all the ding-a-lings that were going on about the price of eggs and blaming Biden what exact mechanism Biden used to cause inflation, etc…

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          10 days ago

          Please educate me. Explain how the President can quickly fix grocery prices without an Executive Order? I haven’t seen anything else that can be done solely by the President.

          • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.worldOP
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            10 days ago

            Man, you really don’t get it do you?

            1. I never insinuated that a President could affect grocery prices, I said Democrats should be savvy enough to realize they should hold his promises against him, which clearly you are not.

            2. Americans that on average read at a sixth grade level don’t give a flying fuck if the President can magically fix grocery prices or not, it’s what they want to believe and what they tell themselves so they can sleep through the hunger at night.

            I honestly don’t get how bad Democrats are at actually talking to people and connecting to regular people. You just hammer away that the guy in charge of the party in charge promised to fix your prices, you point out repeatedly that prices went up under their watch, regardless if it was their fault or not, and you outline how you will fix it, lie or not, in some folksy twang and not act like a giant pretentious douche talking down to the American public. Hell Democrats don’t even have to lie if they would actually listen to what progressives have been trying to tell you Democrats, “It’s the economy and the billionaire stupid”.

            I’d be watching those egg prices and blame Republicans for the rise in egg prices as soon as he takes his oath but you know Democrats won’t be doing that, they’re not smart enough and savvy enough to do it.

            • shani66@ani.social
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              9 days ago

              They lost on purpose. Legit, only way i can make sense of it. Not only should there have been a primary, when they stumbled on the (as in the. Period. No other option) working strategy they stopped it. If their fuckwit institutionalist ideology doesn’t win they’d rather there be no one left to see their failure.