McGovern Comments On Teamsters Statement

By
Rachel Stevenson
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Well, here we go again. Another Democrat, this time Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), has decided that the 60% of Teamsters who back Donald Trump must be “misinformed” or “uninformed.” Because, you see, when blue-collar workers choose someone other than the Democrats’ chosen candidate, it can’t possibly be because they’ve thought things through. No, no—it must be that they just don’t know any better.

McGovern, like many in his party, is having a tough time digesting the fact that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union with over 1.3 million members, decided not to endorse a Democratic candidate for president for the first time since 1996. The internal polling is pretty clear: Trump is leading Harris among union members by a whopping 60% to 34%. That’s right, folks—Trump, the so-called “anti-labor” president, is now the favorite among one of the country’s most powerful labor unions. But instead of reflecting on why that might be, McGovern dismisses these workers as simply uninformed.

He even threw out the usual talking points: Trump’s tax cuts were only for the rich, and he doesn’t care about working people. Because, you know, clearly, Trump’s record on bringing back manufacturing jobs, re-negotiating trade deals like NAFTA, and pushing for lower taxes for businesses that employ these very union workers couldn’t possibly have resonated with them. Nope, McGovern figures they just missed the memo on all of that.

“It’s clear that these workers are misinformed or uninformed about Trump’s record on labor. He is the most anti-labor president we have ever had, and his allegiance isn’t toward working people,” he said, according to The Washington Times. “Look at his plans for a tax cut. I mean tax cuts for rich people, but not for people in the middle class.”

But McGovern wasn’t the only one throwing a fit. Enter Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who’s really disappointed in Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. You see, O’Brien had the audacity to actually sit down with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. For AOC, this apparently crossed some sacred progressive line. Forget about O’Brien doing his job, representing his members, and trying to get the best deal for workers—nope, her concern is more about optics than outcomes. She even suggested that when Teamsters are in trouble, they call the Democrats for help, as if O’Brien is obligated to throw his full support behind a party that’s been hemorrhaging working-class voters for years.

“At the end of the day, we know that when the Teamsters are in trouble, who do they call when they need to make sure that Teamsters pensions are bailed out?” she added, “When they need to make sure that they have a fair shake at the negotiating table? It was Sean O’Brien calling Democrats for help.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Pramilla Jayapal (D-WA) piped up to remind everyone that it was the Democrats who saved Teamsters’ pensions and fought for union organizing. The thing is, none of this hand-waving seems to be convincing Teamsters members, who have clearly seen enough of Washington’s broken promises.

And then there’s the man of the hour, Sean O’Brien, who’s not exactly toeing the traditional union-Democrat line. In July, O’Brien became the first Teamsters president to speak at the Republican National Convention, where he made it pretty clear that he’s tired of doing the same old things that haven’t worked for the working class. He’s not wrong. The people O’Brien represents are sick of getting the same results while politicians in Washington keep playing the same tired game.

“The American people aren’t stupid. They know the system is broken. We all know how Washington is run. Working people have no chance of winning this fight. That’s why I’m here today because I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did,” O’Brien said in his speech at the GOP convention. That’s really the crux of the matter here. These union members are waking up to the fact that their party of choice for decades, the Democrats, are no longer speaking to them or their concerns. Instead, they’re getting lectures from people like McGovern and AOC, who seem more concerned with who they’re having dinner with than whether they’re getting results for their workers.

If anything, the Teamsters’ shift toward Trump and their refusal to back Harris should be a wake-up call for Democrats. But instead, we’re getting more of the same condescension, more of the same finger-pointing, and, of course, the usual dismissal of anyone who doesn’t fall in line with their narrative. The reality is that these workers are tired of the empty promises, and they’re looking for someone who’s willing to shake up the system. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Democrats to take a long, hard look at why they’re losing the very people they claim to represent.

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