General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Democrats' hunt for the white working-class male voter [View all]sufrommich
(22,871 posts)about the Hard Hat riot in 1970, construction workers rioted because the Gov. of New York ordered flags to half staff to honor students killed at Kent State:
On May 4, 1970, thirteen students were shot, four fatally, at Kent State University in Ohio during a protest at US involvement in the Vietnam War and the Cambodian Campaign. As a show of sympathy for the dead students, then-Republican Mayor of New York City John Lindsay ordered all flags at New York City Hall to be flown at half-staff the same day.[1]
The US labor movement was deeply divided over support for President Richard Nixon's Vietnam War policy. AFL-CIO President George Meany and most labor leaders in the United States were vehemently anti-communist and strongly supported US military involvement in Southeast Asia. But by 1970, union members were divided in their support for the war.[2][page needed]
One of the strongest supporters of the president's war policy was Peter J. Brennan. Brennan was president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York, an alliance of building and construction unions in the New York City area. He was also president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of New York, the statewide umbrella group for construction unions. Additionally, he served as the vice president of the New York City Central Labor Council and the New York State AFL-CIO, umbrella groups for all labor unions in these respective areas.[3][4] Brennan was a registered Democrat who had lobbied strongly for Democrats through the 1950s and 1960s, but increasingly supported Republican candidates as support for skilled labour unions decreased.[3] The building and construction unions were overwhelmingly blue-collar and male, and large majorities of these union members supported Nixon's Vietnam policy.[2]
Shortly after the Kent State shootings, anti-war protesters announced they would hold a rally near City Hall to commemorate the four dead students. Brennan decided to organize a counter-rally of construction workers to show support for the Nixon administration.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Hat_Riot
I worked a blue collar job my whole life, most of my interactions were with white blue collar men, the vast majority of them are staunch republicans and our jobs were union jobs,there's no economic explanation for that.