Suffice it to say, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien’s speech came as something of a shock at the Republican National Convention Monday night. The commentariat couldn’t believe he was there. Many of the delegates couldn’t believe how much they agreed with him. As more than one delegate said to me, “That guy makes a lot of sense.”
No kidding.
The C-suite long ago sold out the United States, shuttering factories in the homeland and gutting American jobs, while using the profits to push diversity, equity, and inclusion and the religion of the trans flag. Once upon a time, the head of General Motors could say, with an entirely straight face, “What’s good for GM is good for America.” Those days are long over.
Many Republican politicians have stupidly gone along with the suits. They have broken the backs of unions at every opportunity. They have forged trade deals that led directly to the hemorrhaging of 4 million good jobs to China. They have watched whole towns fall into decrepitude, and an entire generation of working men falter. In a word, they put money before people. Politicians that claimed to stand for morality instead stood for greed.
But as O’Brien correctly observed Monday night, that isn’t the Republican Party’s true tradition. There was a time when Republicans knew that American strength depends squarely on American workers—and their way of life: family, neighborhood, church, union hall. Ronald Reagan knew it. Abraham Lincoln, a one-time rail splitter, understood it in his bones. And Theodore Roosevelt perhaps said it best when he exclaimed, “I am for business. But I am for manhood first, and business as an adjunct to manhood.” Roosevelt’s sentiment should be conservatives’ mantra.
“As O’Brien’s appearance Monday night suggested, this is a watershed moment.”
As O’Brien’s appearance Monday night suggested, this is a watershed moment. Thanks to Donald Trump, there is much that Republicans and labor can already agree on. China is ripping us off, and strong tariffs must be maintained and expanded. We ought to support our auto workers with an America First energy policy, rather than kneecapping that storied industry with idiotic electric-vehicle mandates. We should renegotiate trade deals, protect Social Security and Medicare, and initiate antitrust suits against the most egregious corporate abuses.
O’Brien gives us the roadmap to go even further in 2025. And we should. I have stood on the picket line with the UAW and the Teamsters—all Republicans should do it. I voted to stop Amazon’s labor exploitation, give more sick days to rail workers, and worked across the aisle to limit bank-executive pay. Republicans can begin there. But if given power, we should embrace even more. Let’s cap credit-card interest rates, take the fight to Big Pharma, end exploitative forced labor, and rid politics of corporate money once and for all.
Republicans can even get to work on what O’Brien teased could be a signature accomplishment: bipartisan labor reform. Thousands of Americans have voted to unionize in elections but can never get a contract done, often due to corporate tricks. How can we let that stand?
Republican elites may have sold out to Big Business in years past, but their voters never did. From Missouri to Ohio to Florida, states where Republicans compete and win are home to millions of working people who back the GOP. Many belong to unions or have friends and family who do. They get it: Unions are a vital piece of the fabric of a nation that depends on working people.
Republicans have a chance to turn the corner on labor and get the party back to its roots. Trump’s nomination is proof of that. And I will make sure that Republicans in Congress get to work in 2025. So maybe in years to come, a Teamsters president speaking at the RNC won’t be such a surprise after all.