My understanding of the research is that a higher minimum wage can increase costs, but as a lesser proportion than the increase (edit; to the wage). Labor costs are only portion of expenses for any business, and workers making minimum wage only reflect a portion of the workforce. So, there’s not a zero effect, but I believe it’s usually less than fear mongering would suggest.

I haven’t read into this in at least five years, so happy to admit my own incorrectness if someone knows better.

These ratios hold pretty true with regards to competency in the workplace, too.

I think you’re way overestimating the consistency of independents in the US when it comes to Israel. See recent Gallup figures from February. It’s only in the last year that net sentiment seems to cut against support for Israel.

This seems to come up a bit. Disaffected voters recognize that neither dominant party represents them, see that others feel the same way, and then seemingly assume that the other disaffecteds share their opinion on x or y. If only the party would align with me on this topic, they’d bring over all the independents! It’s not that simple of an equation for many issues.

This isn’t to say Democrats to a good job at triangulating public will or building a coalition. They do not.