In a keynote address to the Republican National Convention last Monday night, Teamster president Sean O’Brien devoted most of his seventeen-minute speech to assailing corporate control of the economy and celebrating the muscle of independent, democratic trade unions.
If they keep gaining support among working class blacks and Hispanics, it would not surprise me if, a century after FDR’s first victory, the Republicans were the new New Deal party:
-Strong in the South while gaining ground in the North
-Jacksonian at heart
-Defenders of a diverse working class (Hispanics now are about where the Irish were then)
-Also friendly to (some) business interests (Lind has written about how Southern and Western elites developed their regions by being part of FDR’s coalition)
-Benefitting from backlash to immigration (Krugman has written about how mass immigration in the 30s would have made the New Deal impossible)
If the Democrats remain dominated by highly educated cultural progressives, this is a very plausible scenario.
Do not confuse pro-union with pro-labor. There was a time in the USA when labor unions looked out for the interests of their rank-and-file members, but today many unions prioritize political goals that have nothing to do with labor and everything to do with advancing an outright Socialist agenda (what does Gaza have to do with UAW contracts?). Democrats should not waste time on dealing with the pro-labor Right and should instead worry that so much of American labor (not the unions, but the actual workers) are pro-Right.
A truism that every working class blue collar worker in America knows in their bones is that if their employer can find someone to work harder and cheaper, they will be out of a job.
After the 2020 election, when the Biden administration took over they changed the rules for crossing our border. Once you came to America, if you successfully crossed the border, you wouldn't be deported. This policy encouraged many hard working bright people from Mexico and central America to pool what resources they and their families could muster, and make the attempt to go to America.
The influx and legalization of such large numbers of strong and willing workers had an immediate effect on labor. Wages which had experienced strong growth due to covid stopped. The help wanted signs that you would see driving down the street came down. Fast food, landscaping, construction, all had workers. The stick was now in the hands of employers.
For the first time the Democratic support for the illegal importation of millions of workers was unambiguous. They celebrated in hopes the wages of cleaning ladies would moderate, similarly with restaurants and uber eats and the lawn guys.
Where this leaves the votes of the working class I don't know. Single issue voters are a rare thing, but when polling tells us the economy is the single most important issue, yet the stock market is at record highs and unemployment low, there must be some economic factor on people's minds.
Will there be a switch from D to R for workers, who knows. I certainly feel as much loyalty to my party as they have shown to me, and there's no one watching when I pull that lever.
"Finally, alert to the multigenerational backlash to globalization, the Democrats under Biden have started to funnel billions in investment to counties and states that lean Republican. Yet, whether because of inflation or other trends that have driven up total living costs—or perhaps anemic state-level parties incapable of honing a strong message—no electoral benefit had redounded to Biden in the months before the June debate sealed his fate."
After all these years of shitting on the half of the U.S. that leans or is Republican, or conservative, or simply does not agree with woke extremist ideologies, why do Democrats think that they can buy those peoples' votes? And why do the Democrats want "fascists," "racists" and "authoritarians" in their fold? Oh, that's right, that's who they themselves are. The Democrats know how easily authoritarians can switch flags, ideologies and names and still be fascists, because that is what they do every few months or less.
If they keep gaining support among working class blacks and Hispanics, it would not surprise me if, a century after FDR’s first victory, the Republicans were the new New Deal party:
-Strong in the South while gaining ground in the North
-Jacksonian at heart
-Defenders of a diverse working class (Hispanics now are about where the Irish were then)
-Also friendly to (some) business interests (Lind has written about how Southern and Western elites developed their regions by being part of FDR’s coalition)
-Benefitting from backlash to immigration (Krugman has written about how mass immigration in the 30s would have made the New Deal impossible)
If the Democrats remain dominated by highly educated cultural progressives, this is a very plausible scenario.
Do not confuse pro-union with pro-labor. There was a time in the USA when labor unions looked out for the interests of their rank-and-file members, but today many unions prioritize political goals that have nothing to do with labor and everything to do with advancing an outright Socialist agenda (what does Gaza have to do with UAW contracts?). Democrats should not waste time on dealing with the pro-labor Right and should instead worry that so much of American labor (not the unions, but the actual workers) are pro-Right.
A truism that every working class blue collar worker in America knows in their bones is that if their employer can find someone to work harder and cheaper, they will be out of a job.
After the 2020 election, when the Biden administration took over they changed the rules for crossing our border. Once you came to America, if you successfully crossed the border, you wouldn't be deported. This policy encouraged many hard working bright people from Mexico and central America to pool what resources they and their families could muster, and make the attempt to go to America.
The influx and legalization of such large numbers of strong and willing workers had an immediate effect on labor. Wages which had experienced strong growth due to covid stopped. The help wanted signs that you would see driving down the street came down. Fast food, landscaping, construction, all had workers. The stick was now in the hands of employers.
For the first time the Democratic support for the illegal importation of millions of workers was unambiguous. They celebrated in hopes the wages of cleaning ladies would moderate, similarly with restaurants and uber eats and the lawn guys.
Where this leaves the votes of the working class I don't know. Single issue voters are a rare thing, but when polling tells us the economy is the single most important issue, yet the stock market is at record highs and unemployment low, there must be some economic factor on people's minds.
Will there be a switch from D to R for workers, who knows. I certainly feel as much loyalty to my party as they have shown to me, and there's no one watching when I pull that lever.
"Finally, alert to the multigenerational backlash to globalization, the Democrats under Biden have started to funnel billions in investment to counties and states that lean Republican. Yet, whether because of inflation or other trends that have driven up total living costs—or perhaps anemic state-level parties incapable of honing a strong message—no electoral benefit had redounded to Biden in the months before the June debate sealed his fate."
After all these years of shitting on the half of the U.S. that leans or is Republican, or conservative, or simply does not agree with woke extremist ideologies, why do Democrats think that they can buy those peoples' votes? And why do the Democrats want "fascists," "racists" and "authoritarians" in their fold? Oh, that's right, that's who they themselves are. The Democrats know how easily authoritarians can switch flags, ideologies and names and still be fascists, because that is what they do every few months or less.