The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Unionism in America is schizophrenic. The reality of the collective bargaining scheme is that any strike will decrease total compensation very quickly, so it is incumbent upon the union hierarchy to settle quickly. But the assumption of a quick settlement shrinks the power of the strike. Unlike Europe, where strikes are built into the process, most American union members are unprepared for the financial burden of a strike, in particular during times like today...stagnant wage growth and high inflation.

And the political considerations are at least as significant. The union bosses are traditionally hard-line Democrats, but the rank & file is decidedly less so. That tradition includes selling union votes in return for a compliant government during negotiations, but the disconnect between the Democrat party and the workers has never been more profound than today. The Obama/Biden/Harris cabal is savagely opposed to most American cultural traditions, and union members have noticed. Add in its anti-business stance, support for crackpot technologies like EVs that are guaranteed to shrink the automotive industrial base in America, and sheer, unbridled insanity like transgenderism, and it is no wonder that the Harris campaign is just a bit concerned!

Kamala's Camp Must Be Having Heartburn Over This CNN Segment

Sometimes there are data points that just jump off the screen and should set off sirens. Alright, this is union households, this is the Democratic margin in the presidential election. It ain't what it used to be.

You go back to 1992, Bill Clinton won that union vote by 30 points. Hillary Clinton only won it by 12 points back in 2016. That was the lowest mark for a Democrat since 1984, Mondale versus Reagan. But look at where Kamala Harris is today. She is only leading by nine points. That would be the worst Democratic performance in a generation. Ten points off the mark of Joe Biden, who of course won four years ago as sort of that union guy, "Union Joe," right? He won by 19 points. She's ten points off his mark, and the worst in a generation if this, in fact, holds.

The content-free gibberish about building a new economy may sound nice to the slim-hipped hipsters in Brooklyn and Cambridge and Palo Alto, but the jobs that most Americans need and want are conspicuously absent in her nonsense.

Donald Trump understands the anger of the American worker, and has made clear his desire to put them first. If that means tariffs...so be it. American jobs are more important than incremental decreases in labor costs when manufacturing is offshore. Are tariffs economically sound? Possibly. Are they emotionally powerful and politically important? Absolutely.

But more than that...it is the idea of a president who cares about American jobs more than he cares about a sh*tty little border war in Ukraine. It's the idea that a president cares about the price of a tank of gas more than he cares about a politically motivated wealth redistribution driven by globalists. It's the idea that a president loves America...and Americans...more than he love the idea of a new world order that allows the rapid dissipation of American Exceptionalism.

The default Democrat support from many voting blocs in America is crumbling. Blacks, unions, Hispanics...they are all drifting away from the traditional Democrat. Is it huge? No. But a few percentage points is enough to shift the balance toward Donald Trump in a very meaningful way.

He will never get the committed unionist with the Eugene Debs tattoos and the key to the union local office, but he may get those in the middle, and they are all he needs.

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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