Building on Trump’s labor union success

Among the most remarkable achievements of President Donald Trump’s political rise has been the inroads he has made into traditional Democratic constituencies, particularly labor unions. Republicans, if they play their cards right, can ensure this lasts.

For decades, organized labor has been a core constituency of the Democratic Party. It was understood that in every election cycle, unions would line up behind Democratic candidates and mobilize their members to vote blue.

But union members are quintessential American voters. They want most of all to earn their living to support their families in a safe community that they can call home while avoiding being dragged into leftist causes that turn their communities into social experiments. As long evidenced by the last election, Democrats no longer connect with voters who feel this way.

At the same time, union leaders have become so enmeshed with the Democratic apparatus that they promoted causes such as mass immigration that had at best nothing to do with the purpose of their organization and often downright opposed the interests of their members.

The Service Employees International Union lists “racial justice” as one of its primary causes and has issued numerous statements on the war in Gaza, even though the union is only based in North America. The American Federation of Teachers and its camera-chasing president, Randi Weingarten, have repeatedly made statements on issues that have little to do with the union’s proper mission, including the anniversary of George Floyd’s death and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

In the meantime, the union leaders who resisted pressure from peer organizations and refused to rubber-stamp Democrats showed that it pays not to be partisan. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters refused to endorse a candidate in the 2024 election, and, in turn, Trump...

Republicans, if they play their cards right, can ensure this lasts.

The best thing that could be done for unions is to end their exemption from anti-trust law, forcing them to break up and compete for workers, training and marketing skilled labor, making the most of every worker. Union monopolies are an evil that turned them fat and lazy, transforming free association into an array of indentured constituencies, effectively provinces of the Democrat Party.

The Party in turn became fat and lazy, taking those workers for granted every bit as much as racial minorities they never deserved, having bought them with middle class money to fund destructive entitlements. As the pebbles have fallen, the Party seeks to stem the landslide.

Hopefully they blow it, but there's no accounting for the damage done by public schools.

Let’s be clear. Trump has had success with private sector workers who have been forced to joined labor unions. Some private sector Labor Unions have sided with their members in order to survive.

Most labor union members are in the public sector, Teachers being the most obvious, but also other state and federal employees.
Many public sector employees believe that government is the solution.
Many private sector employees believe that government is the problem.

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