Viewpoint: Free advice to Dems before losing unions to the GOP

Eli Steinberg

“The Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party.” These are the words of Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien who spoke on Monday at the Republican National Convention.

I, as a Democrat, was horrified to see a union leader speaking at the convention of an anti-union political party, a party that has passed right-to-work laws in state after state, that has weakened child labor laws, that has weakened the right to overtime pay, that has weaken protections against wage theft, that opposes minimum wage increases, and that opposes paid family leave for workers.

With that being said, many on the progressive side of politics were quick to criticize O’Brien. I, however, believe the problem of workers and union voters rushing into the arms of the Republican Party is a problem decades in the making, caused by the mistakes of the Democratic Party and the progressive movement in this country.

In 1948, 76% of union voters voted for Harry Truman. Truman was, being a member of the New Deal coalition, was unarguably a pro-labor, pro-union president. Case and point, Truman’s Fair Deal called for the repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act (that repeal failed to pass).

Then in 2020, Joe Biden, unarguably the most pro-union president since the New Deal, the president nicknamed “union Joe,” the president who would go on to join the picket lines with UAW workers, won 57% of the union vote. That’s a nearly 20-point drop. The polls suggest that this decline in union support for Democrats, the party that was once considered unarguably the party of the American worker, will continue this year as well.

I as someone who, as the chairman of the High School Democrats of Montana, will continue to see this problem in future elections, and as someone who is unashamedly a pro-worker, pro-union Montana Democrat, would like to offer some insight for my fellow Democrats to get on the road to recovery.

1. Democrats need to stop Talking about the Culture Wars.

The simple truth is that union voters, and the overwhelming majority of Americans, want progressive, left-of-center economic change. According to a poll by the Research Institute Echelon Insights, a majority of respondents say the federal government should provide healthcare to all citizens, there should be a 15-dollar-an-hour federal minimum wage, and there should be higher taxes on the rich.

At the same time, however, a majority say free speech should be defended, there should be stronger funding for police departments, and that America is the greatest country in the world. In short, the study found that 60% of voters leaned left on economic issues, but only 48% leaned left culturally.

Americans want radical economic change, they want a government that economically defends its citizens. At the same time, they are tired of Thanksgiving dinner table arguments about the culture wars. Republicans know this, no Republican politician gives a campaign speech calling for tax cuts for the wealthy, or cutting Social Security.

They set a culture war trap for Democrats, and Democrats fall for it. There’s nothing wrong with being culturally progressive, but we, as progressives, shouldn’t go over the top — and we shouldn’t overly emphasize cultural or global issues, because they simply don’t affect the lives of Americans, but economic bread and butter issues do.

2. Democrats need to reclaim patriotism.

Just like many Americans are economically progressive but culturally moderate, so too are many Americans — including union voters economically progressive but moderate or outright conservative on foreign policy — and they see America, rightfully, as the greatest country in the world.

For decades, Republicans have successfully hammered in the message that they and they alone represent patriotism and American interests abroad. Voters don’t see the Democrats as a patriotic party. While this is a Republican strategy, Democrats have only made this problem worse.

Democrats need to start showing themselves as outwardly patriotic, they need to take greater inspiration from the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers, and Lincoln. They also need to be willing to take pro-America, pro-national sovereignty positions on issues like trade and military spending. They need to be willing to openly and proudly support a larger defense budget, and protectionist policies on trade to protect American jobs and workers from the cruelties of foreign business.

Furthermore, supporting American economic and military interests is in line with progressive policies. We must always remember that big business and the economic elites, (the groups we as progressives and Democrats want to reel in) know no country, they are not interested in treating their workers in America well, and no more are they interested in the prosperity or interests of America as a nation on the world stage.

Democrats didn’t always have a patriotism problem. In the era of the New Deal, it was the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt that was seen as patriotic and strong on defense. Franklin Roosevelt once said “When the Naval Expansion Bill came up in 1938, the vast majority of Republican members of the Congress voted against building any more battleships [...] can such people be treated, trusted, trusted with national defense? I say no!” That is the type of Democratic politics we, as Democrats, must return to.

3. Democrats need to give the unions a permanent voice in the party.

The fact is, the Democratic Party can have pro-union, pro-worker, pro-America policy, but that only solves half of the problem. The Unions will still feel taken for granted, and workers will still feel a pull towards the fake populist of Donald Trump, for whom the entire American media is unfortunately providing increasingly positive coverage.

In order to get workers and unions back on our side, we must do what nearly all of the progressive political parties of Europe, Australia, and New Zealand have already done, which is to give the unions official and permanent representation in the national party.

To that end, I propose the Democratic Party give the unions of this country, including the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, and all the rest, a large number of permanent seats on the Democratic National Committee, as well as permanent substantive influence over the Democratic Party’s policy and strategy. Only then will the unions, and their members feel the Democratic Party is not only speaking up for them, but giving them a voice of their own as well.

I will conclude by saying this, we as Americans are lucky, we are about to have a decisive election, so what are we, as Democrats, and as Americans waiting for? Let us go forward with the uncompromising and all-encompassing goal of expanding Joe Biden’s nickname to all of the Democratic Party. Let’s go from “union Joe” to “union Democrats.”