LET’S TALK ABOUT GHASTLY DISHWASHERS:

“Why is Trump talking about dishwashers?” asks Slate. “It’s part of Trump’s core campaign message: nostalgia for a fictitious era in American history where everything was better, simpler.”

Maybe. But there’s also this reality: he is 100% correct about this whole topic. It’s a big and important one too.

American dishwashers used to work. They were wonderful labor-saving devices. They kept our kitchens cleaner. They sanitized the dishes, helping to stop cross-contamination and generally improving health over the iffy process of handwashing. Also, as with all household appliances, they made life better, reducing one more chore that was widely seen as women’s work.

Then one day they just stopped doing the work.

What happened?

Older models of dishwashers used 15 gallons of water. Today the typical “Energy Star” model will attempt to wash with three gallons. Sorry but that’s just not possible, no matter how many fancy tricks you try.

Dishwashers used to wash all the dishes in under one hour. Now they take two hours, three hours, and four hours, and still don’t get the dishes clean. So much for saving on energy. Less water, sure, but more electricity — and what does it mean to save resources when the thing doesn’t work?

All of this is directly due to government regulations.

Of course. To be fair, when products get worse, that’s usually the reason. See also gas cans.

Plus: “These regulations have caused an infuriating and devastating degradation of the quality of appliances and the quality of life in our homes. Trump is a smart politician. He specializes in finding issues that no one else is talking about how they directly affect the quality of life.”