It’s inconceivable to most Democrats that working men and women could vote for Republicans - yet that trend has been happening for some time now. Over the Labor Day weekend Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke on Face The Nation to explain why his union hasn’t endorsed Kamala Harris - the only one of the Big 10 Labor unions in the country who hasn’t done so.
O’Brien noted that his union is split “50-50” between Republicans and Democrats, a worrying trend for Labor unions who have religiously supported Democrats despite growing Republican membership in their ranks.
As the “Diploma Divide” continues to shape the contours of our changing political system, Labor Unions will continue to be on the front lines of this change. Republicans are awkwardly trying to replace Democrats on the front lines of this change, with results that for the moment can only be described as ‘weird’ - case in point is this moment caught on video of JD Vance appearing on the picket line of striking UAW workers alongside long time Labor Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur.
Ruy Tuxiera, co-author of the popular substack The Liberal Patriot has written extensively on the growing cleavage between the Democratic parties new college educated base and it’s working class roots. In a recent post on labor Day Tuxiera provides overwhelming evidence that the gap between working class voters and the college educated is growing bigger. One of his main take-aways is “Working-class adults are still significantly more pessimistic about the state of the nation’s economy than the college-educated: 78 percent say the economy is not so good or poor compared to “only” 62 percent among the college-educated.”
The changing workforce is at the front lines of The Great Transformation the country is undergoing. Perhaps nowhere, including in our politics is the convergence of race, class, partisanship and education more apparent than in our changing work place.
Can Kamala Harris reconnect with the working class?