Hate to say this but this is the second time labor has dropped the ball.

[JohnSJ]

The first time was when they chose Reagan over Carter. That was a disaster for labor.

This time labor split the vote between Harris and Trump, and the Teamster leadership was openly hostile to Democrats.

We will see how that works out for them with musk and thiel behind the scenes.

If trump executes what he promised, in all likelihood this will not go well economically. If that happens, the midterms will offer an opportunity at the very least slow down the damage.

The midterms will be a test how durable our Democracy is.

[VMA131Marine]

1. Remember Trump promised

No taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security. Of course, he’ll do that by eliminating tips, overtime, and Social Security.

[JohnSJ]

2. +++

[JI7]

6. I don't see how this makes much difference

unless you are making a good amount of money .

[VMA131Marine]

27. Exactly, but people bought into it

because most of them don’t understand that if you’re in the lower third or so of the U.S. income range you’re barely paying any income taxes in the first place. Your biggest tax burden is probably going to be sales tax which is one of the most regressive taxes out there and why people in lower income brackets pay a higher fraction of their income in total taxes than people in higher income brackets.

[Homoudont]

24. taxes

If Trump eliminates those taxes he's going to have to make it up somewhere. National sales tax? VAT tax? We know he isn't going to raise taxes for millionaires.

[VMA131Marine]

25. Tariffs!

He’s taking us back to 1890.

Trump explicitly said this in his campaign speeches but tariffs will need to be a lot higher than 60%!on just China to make up for eliminating income taxes.

[Johnny2X2X]

26. Yeah, that's not going to happen

He won't be cutting taxes on OT, tips, or Social Security.

[VMA131Marine]

29. Well he certainly can't do it without Congress

But I agree that it won’t look anything like what he promised.

[Ms. Toad]

3. A more accurate and productive framing would be that it is the second time that the Democratic leadership

failed to listen to and address the concerns of labor.

Touting the strength of the financial market economy, without acknowledging and speaking to the concerns of those whose paycheck economy (what is left of the paycheck after paying for necessities) is weak was a recipe for disaster. The Democratic leadership is increasingly educated, better off financially, and less in touch with those who make up our traditional base. It has been described as elitist - and in a very real sense it is - as is our inability to recognize our own role in the loss of support of labor and others less well off.

[JohnSJ]

4. Nonsense. Let's see how they get along with union busting Trump, musk. and

Thiel.

Labor gave us Reagan, and they helped give us Trump.

Biden and his administration were the most pro labor administration in decades.

I hope they enjoy the reign of trump. Let’s see how that works out for them.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Not the point - and actually that level of arrogance in taking it for granted that labor will vote Democratic,

(And that Palestinians will vote Democratic, that trans folks will vote Democratic, etc.) because Trump will be worse is part of the problem.

If we want to win, we can't take the support of our traditional base for granted in favor of chasing the support of others.

I'm not at the point where I can't rationally see that even with our shortcomings (like deferring to anti-trans sentiment), the alternative is worse. But I have friends who are at that point, and who voted for Jill Stein - against their own objective interests. 22% of people in Dearborn, Michigan voted for Jill Stein. Cuyahoga County (Cleveland Ohio) voters just stayed home - in the lowest turnout since 2008. That ought to be a wake-up call for introspection, not an occasion to toss blame on others.

[JI7]

7. Black women are the ones that vote democratic in highest numbers and then other various

women's groups such as latinas and single women.

I know inflation was an issue but it's not just that.

[Ms. Toad]

9. I never said it was the only issue.

I was addressing the framing - that labor failed us. We failed labor.

[Phoenix61]

12. What should Kamala have done? nt

[Ms. Toad]

39. I've addressed it numerous times,

Both before and since the election.

Stop touting market economy, and focus on pocketbook economy. The voters we are bleeding don't give a damn about the stock market when their paycheck runs out before the bills are paid. Even if there is no immediate fix, telling them not to believe their lying wallets is elitist, offensive, and makes them feel like there is no point in bothering to vote. We lost on voter turnout - based on early reports, Trump received fewer votes this year than in 2020. In Cuyahoga County (Cleveland a reliably blue area) turnout was the lowest since 2008.

Don't ignore Muslim and Palestinian voters, based on the assumption that they will always vote Democratic. Failing to include a Palestinian voice on stage at the convention was, in the eyes of many, unforgiveable, and failing to put any meaningful distance between Biden''s policies and her own position almost certainly contributed to 22% of Dearborn Michigan voters voting for Jill Stein.

Those are just two examples of how these two postures likely contributed to our loss - as the data is crunched, I'm sure there will be many more.

Yes, by the end of the campaign, Harris had started to more effectively address these issues, but not until it was too late.

As an LGBTQ person, I know the pain and anger associated with my vote being taken for granted, in favor of pandering to those who don't believe I'm deserving of basic rights - either by deliberate silence - or by advocating for compromises that subvert my rightd (e.g. Obama in 2008 - my relationship is something, but not a marriage; Biden after the debate by supporting a ban on gender-affirming surgery for minors).

My reaction is (so far, at least) always rational. No matter how hurt and angry I am, I know the alternative is far worse. But not all of us are capable of acting rationally after being repeatedly punched in the gut by those who are supposed to be our allies. I have friends who stayed home, and friends who voted for Stein. As to the economy and the Muslim and Palestinian communities - those losses were, in part, self-inflicted.

[yardwork]

13. Meh. I think it's a form of elitism to assume people are infants.

Just because more than half the voters just proved themselves to be babies who prefer an entertaining, incoherent fantasy over boring facts and plans, doesn't mean I'm going to run back to cosplaying the dreary blaming of Democrats, a cultural ritual in the living rooms of academic elites.

Kamala Harris ran an excellent campaign, focused on helping people. Trump ran an incoherent campaign filled with lies and insane promises. "Only I can fix it."

[Sympthsical]

14. We had the audacity to tell people they aren't experiencing what they're experiencing

To their face. How many articles did I read, "The economy's doing amazing. You're hallucinating your problems."

Turns out, working people didn't like that.

Inflation is under control. Now. But massive price increases haven't gone away. Groceries, insurance, rent, health care. Paycheck to paycheck people have been getting squeezed every which way. Groceries alone have increased 25% since 2020. I don't know a whole lot of people who got 25% pay raises in that time. Maybe it's me, but my household certainly didn't.

But hey, the economy looks great on paper! You're just making things up!

Well. That worked out well for us.

[dalton99a]

15. +1. Many people value food and housing over democracy.

[atreides1]

30. Well

The price of groceries increased because the manufacturers of those products increased them, for a profit! The people blamed the government and not the companies.

The truth is that those prices will be going up again, possibly to the point where millions of households won't be able to afford putting food on the table!

Who will those people blame then?

[Sympthsical]

37. I'm not arguing the causes. I'm discussing the response to them.

“You’re not suffering. Shut up.” is one hell of a unique campaign message, I’ll give it that.

And I read that sentiment often this year, which is totally insane to me.

And this isn’t me Monday morning quarterbacking. People can check my post history. I’ve been absolutely gobsmacked by this attitude for ages.

[Coexist]

38. I respectfully disagree. I think they messaged to labor A LOT

they worked with Labor a lot. Every speech, most ads, stops where they needed to go to rally the labor base. The people who make up labor just like TFG better. End of story.

[Trueblue1968]

5. Unions didnt help us much.

[JohnSJ]

8. According to exit polls they split the vote, along with Latinos who also split the vote, and the

anticipated women vote didn’t materialize significantly.

[Arthur_Frain]

11. I hate to say this

But this is the second red wave I’ve lived through in the so called United States.

And it sucks worse this time.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

16. How did they drop the ball? Harris won union households at a rate similar to Biden's in 2020.

And as with almost any cohort, there is a sizable chunk that votes to uphold supremacy.

[JohnSJ]

20. The vote was split. Harris held onto union households, but by only a 10-point margin (54-44) compared to Biden's 16

point margin.

57% of the voters were working class. From that 57%, only 44 percent of them voted for Kamala Harris, against 54 percent who voted for Donald Trump.

"That’s a lot worse than Joe Biden did in 2020. Biden won 47 percent of the working-class vote, against 51 percent who voted for Donald Trump. Over four years, the Democratic deficit among working-class voters more than doubled from four percentage points to 10 percentage points. Look no further for a reason why Donald Trump won."

............

"Harris held onto union households, but by only a 10-point margin (54–44) compared to Biden’s 16-point margin (56–40). If Harris hadn’t been so diffident about labor issues in her campaign, she might have done better. Harris was also hurt when three major unions—the Teamsters, the International Association of Firefighters, and the International Longshoremen’s Association—declined to endorse her (I think out of cowardice). Steve Rosenthal, a former political director of the AFL-CIO who now runs a voter project called In Union, noted that Harris actually bested Biden with union households in Pennsylvania, where it really mattered. In 2020 Biden lost Pennsylvania’s union households, 49–50, whereas in 2024 Harris won them, 54–45. Unfortunately, that gain was not decisive, because union workers are only about 13 percent of all workers in Pennsylvania."

https://newrepublic.com/article/188107/harris-lost-working-class-election

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. It's always split, no cohort is a monolith. According to those NR numbers, the bleed was similar to Democrats as a

whole. 10 points is solid; I’ve seen other exit polls at 12-17.

[JohnSJ]

22. Every vote counted Whiskey as I am sure you agree, but the differences this time around should have been much greater

with the very real threat another trump term poised, and that among the working class, trump actually received more votes is disappointing to say the least.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. As with most cohorts, including much, much larger ones.

[Emile]

17. Blaming labor, wow.

[JohnSJ]

18. They were a contributing factor when they split their vote between Harris and trump. They were a major factor when they

overwhelmingly voted for Reagan against Carter. That was a disaster for them.

We will see how this works out for them with musk and thiel behind the scenes pushing their influence with trump.

The dream of Leonard Leo are being realized.

[Emile]

19. You think finger pointing will bring them back?

The people who cost us this election stayed home and didn't vote. They were pissed at inflation and wrongly blaming us for it.

[kerouac2]

28. Didn't unions and labor not endorse because of internal poll

I recall seeing that some unions polled their members, and majority of the members or many of them wanted to endorse trump. So union leaders decided not to endorse anyone. So then regional unions/chapters endorsed independently...

We literally have teachers voting for trump, despite p25 calling for end of doe.

[RJ_MacReady]

31. we need to figure that out

And quickly, teachers, union workers, Black People, Hispanic people (to a point), people under 30 who reliably vote Democatic voted for Trump in better than expected vote shares, yes not close to a majority but more than enough to swing the election. This needs to be addressed and addressed with urgency. Harris only won NJ by FIVE points. We need to retool our messaging policy priorities.

[JohnSJ]

34. Change our message to what? The messaging wasn't the problem. That is what we stand for. I am afraid the problem

is we live in a sexist, racist country.

The Madison Square Garden event should have been the end of trump, and the fact that it wasn't is a disgrace.

What this election revealed is that the country as a whole is composed of a lot of selfish people, who choose hate and division of unity and progress.

I will never forgive the country for what it has done. They have elected a sociopath who assaults women, incited an insurrection to overthrow a fair and legitimate election, and openly spewed hatred and division.

I am sorry there is no ambiguity anymore. The makeup of this country is not a nice one, and anything bad that happens to those who voted for him as a result of his policies, I could care less.

In the 80's labor overwhelmingly went for reagan over Carter. Four years later when the reelection came labor was crying about what reagan had done to them. It was too then, and I suspect it could very well be too late in four years for them.

[Nigrum Cattus]

32. Prevailing wage

All they have to do is get rid of the Davis-Bacon act and the construction trade
unions will shrink by 80%. They also truly hate the government employee unions.
We will see how his destruction of all the career gov. positions proceeds.

[Tickle]

33. Nice post

I haven’t read any of the comments, but I’ve found inspiration here. You’re absolutely right—let’s wait for the Midterms, as they will surely bring about meaningful change. Thank you for brightening my day!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

35. trump is not a friend of labor or workers

[JohnSJ]

36. no kidding