Will 2024 be the election where the “bitter clingers” and “deplorables” take their ballot box revenge on Democrat politicians?
Fresh off the foiling of the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump just a couple days prior, major media outlets didn’t pay much attention to the news that Teamsters Union president Sean O’Brien announced the large and historically Democrat-supporting union would not be endorsing either major party candidate this year, an action some in Democrat-land hailed as a victory for Democrat nominee cackling Kamala Harris.
Why? Because rank-and-file Teamsters members would seemingly be front-and-center of the type of voters that Trump routinely targets, namely working-class whites without a college degree. I can’t say for certain, but it definitely appears that most Teamsters members wouldn’t be hanging around a Kamala Harris rally looking for “joy” and “vibe” and downplaying the enormous cost-of-living hikes that have cropped up during the Biden administration.
Most people care about the so-called “kitchen table” issues more than Democrats give them credit for. Quality of life is made by such things, aspects that can’t be measured by how much they like or admire their presidential candidate. Politics is something that will evaporate once the election is over, but Democrats depend on short attention spans to remain competitive this year.
Nevertheless, it was a big deal that such a large and noteworthy chunk of organized labor had opted to stay out of the 2024 endorsement game, seeing as every Teamsters affirmation within recent memory has been safely placed in the Democrats’ camp. Not only that, but president senile Joe Biden – Kamala Harris’s mentor and political benefactor who’s sung her praises as being very pro-union – continues talking about creating “good union jobs” at every speech touting his economic bona fides.
Just like with many other historically “safe” Democrat voter blocs, union members are no longer sticking to the “what we’ve always done” mantra and pledging to make Harris the next president. Some union groups are toeing the usual line – try finding a Teachers Union adherent who separated from Harris, for example – but the people who actually work with their hands and have to pay for the drastic across-the-board price increases? Not so much.
Seeing as a host of union members are concentrated in the upper Midwest and will be casting their votes in swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the Teamsters’ silence could be particularly relevant this year. With much less than two months to go until Election Day, the non-endorsement couldn’t have come at a better time for Donald Trump. Or a worse time for Kamala Harris who is breathlessly straining to keep her wobbly Democrat coalition together.
Will it work? In an article titled, “Biden-Harris swap could open up weakness in ‘blue wall’ voting blocs”, Haisten Willis reported at the Washington Examiner last week:
“The Teamsters Union caused a stir… by releasing internal polling that found former President Donald Trump leading Harris nearly two-to-one among its members. The union subsequently declined to issue an endorsement, the first time it had not backed the Democratic presidential ticket since 1996. ‘Rank-and-file union workers like the Teamsters relate to Trump, a builder who has worked with many unions, to a person who has never created working-class jobs,’ Dan Bowling, who teaches labor courses at Georgia State University, told the Washington Examiner.
“What may be even more worrying for Democrats is the shift in the support after Biden left the race. Rank-and-file Teamsters backed Biden over Trump 44.3% to 36.3%, according to the union’s own polling, but two polls taken after Biden dropped out found Trump taking nearly 60% of the vote, with Harris polling in the low 30s.
“Among the wider electorate, Harris’s numbers are vastly superior to Biden’s. She has pulled ahead in national polling averages after he trailed badly for most of the year. But blue-collar, noncollege-educated workers make up a notable voting bloc of the midwestern blue wall states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, which will be crucial in deciding the election.”
One wonders… are other types of union members similarly inclined to “silently” back Trump against the wishes of their public decision-makers? This could be a major source of “silent” Trump voters this year.
More interestingly, Democrats finally found one group of supporters who prefer the broken-down old hair sniffin’, shoulders massagin’, child repellin’, prodigal son protectin’ old goat over the party’s DEI-inspired flavor of the moment, a woman so obtuse and out-of-touch that she probably doesn’t even understand who the Teamsters Union represent, just that they’ve typically been in the tank for her party.
Democrats were quick to point out that unions aren’t monolithic, that the membership typically votes its conscience, but still, the bosses do hold some sway. The survey quoted in the story demonstrates that members don’t trust Harris, a California liberal lawyer who’s never had a private sector job much less created one, as someone who relates easily to the average workin’ man.
Whenever there’s a shift in candidates like the Democrats just underwent, it’s only natural for people of all sorts to take a step back and assess whether the new standard-bearer is truly with them or if she’s merely a figurehead who blubbers nice things and whose best claim-to-fame is that she’s not Donald Trump. Kamala Harris hasn’t exactly been stellar in explaining how her policies would benefit average people, either, as she’s been unwilling to directly answer the “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” question.
Such a query wouldn’t be difficult for Donald Trump to answer; the response is an emphatic “no”.
Every time I notice there’s been a dramatic shift in traditional Democrat voters, I wonder about polls and methodology and formulas and the way the elite data crunchers tabulate each candidate’s respective support. Sure, it only makes sense Kamala Harris gained ground on Trump among the rabid abortion-loving feminist lot, semi-braindead younger voters who’ve never had to pay a mortgage, the limousine liberal lot who thought Biden was too old and senile to function and other conglomerations who just hate Donald Trump.
But what about what Democrats gave up when senile Joe Biden opted to stay home and eat ice cream for the next four years? Democrat voters understood what Biden meant, which was to guarantee that Barack Obama’s handlers would continue running the show and they could expect their usual wholesome slice of the federal pie in perpetuity if he somehow were reelected.
With Kamala Harris, however, all proverbial bets are off because no one truly understands what she believes in. Don’t overlook the fact Democrats need all of their voter blocs to side with them and that a shift of only a percentage point or two can make a huge difference in key states.
When coupled with dips in other usual Democrat constituencies such as African-American voters (especially men) and Hispanics (those who are heartily sick of illegal immigration), one would surmise Trump has made up ground. In the polls. Wouldn’t it make sense, then, that Trump is closer than being tied or slightly behind?
The vaunted David Catron (of The American Spectator) came to a similar conclusion in his Monday column.
Where is Harris getting her voters? Are there truly enough single-issue Trump hating Republicans to help her tip the balance? Kamala herself wouldn’t be considered inspiring to anyone except those who favor her just for her skin color and gender, and, again, her issue platform is largely unknown. Her announced intention to vastly increase the child tax credit and provide free mortgage stipends isn’t going to motivate that many to vote for her, right?
So a slight shift in voter preferences in those swing states mentioned in Willis’s report makes sense. Fracking makes up a large part of the local economy in Pennsylvania and the auto industry is still big in Michigan, and no one in those sectors would be tempted to cast off common sense and their livelihoods to support Kamala Harris.
Besides, since the second assassination attempt, Trump appears to have shifted campaign emphasis a bit, foregoing his usual all-attack-all-the-time to humanize himself a little further. Many people don’t realize Trump appeared on Fox News’s “Gutfeld” late night comedy show last week and chewed the fat with people who wouldn’t be considered usual Trump supporters.
Afterwards, one commentator added that to gain ground in places like Pennsylvania, Trump needs to do more Gutfeld-type shows and less mass rallies.
We’ll see if Trump does more talk shows and less political stuff in the coming month or so.
The larger question is whether The Teamsters’ non-announcement signals a greater political realignment taking place or if this is just a one-off for 2024. The forced passage of Biden from the 2024 race demonstrates that the Obama/Clinton/Biden control over the Democrat party may have shifted a bit from the old coalitions to a new emphasis on attracting a certain type of voter, namely non-married women and highly educated suburban voters lured by the Democrats’ new focus on “woke” social issues.
Democrats seem to have largely written-off working-class white voters, though it should be pointed out that other Big Labor unions have remained loyal to the Democrats. Whether the rank-and-file follows the leadership is another question.
I’m not sure if there’s a palpable change this year, but it signals that economic issues will determine the election in places like the upper Midwest. It took a unique “outsider” candidate like Trump to assemble this new crowd of working-class voters. Ronald Reagan did it in the 80’s by deemphasizing the Republican Party’s relationship with big business. Trump actively goes to Labor groups and asks them for their votes.
The fact the former “blue wall” is even in play in the Rust Belt is a story in itself. Barack Obama dismissed these people as “bitter clingers” and some Democrat politicians, such as Hillary Clinton, now blame them for creating conditions that led to Trump’s assassination attempts.
Time will tell whether the Teamsters’ non-endorsement will be a determining factor in the ultimate winner of the all-important upper Midwestern states. It appears that the parties’ tug-of-war over Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania will continue through Election Day. And maybe beyond. Sooner or later, I hope, more people will wake up to the possibility of a Kamala Harris presidency before it’s too late.
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