The New Labor Forum has launched a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.
Working-class anxiety and rage – often disguised in the drama that is American electoral politics – have assumed a central role in the current presidential race. It is this distress that has in large part buoyed the Donald, harlequin huckster of the GOP, who upon reviewing the Nevada Caucus results, declared, “I love the poorly educated!”
And in a sign that working-class angst may have emerged from some of its old hiding places, evangelicals have largely abandoned candidates like Ted Cruz, who have built their careers railing against abortion and gay rights, in favor the unabashed playboy exemplar of “New York values.” It is Trump’s energetic anti-free trade, anti-immigrant tirades that so poignantly enact white working-class stress and has brought him to the lead.
So no surprise then that union members voting in the Republican primaries vote for Trump at significantly higher rates than other GOP voters. This, after roughly two decades of energetic, expensive and, until now, fairly successful efforts on behalf of the AFL-CIO to educate union voters and their families. On one hand, it makes perfect sense; after years of making it clear that corporate friendly free trade deals were harming workers, why wouldn’t Republican union members square the circle by going for Trump?
Please feel free to respond directly on New Labor Forum’s site. We welcome your feedback!
Contents:
- The Genie Grown Monstrous: How Donald Trump, the All-American Frankenstein, Devoured the GOP / Steve Fraser Editor – at Large, New labor Forum
- Class Will Out by Harold Meyerson, American Prospect
Photo by Gage Skidmore used via Creative Commons from flickr (CC-BY-SA)
