2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy Bernie Needs to Be Our Nominee: Numerous Reports Say Workers Want Bernie or Trump
Mary Kay Henry, president of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, acknowledged as much in a recent interview. "I am deeply concerned about what is stirring, even in our membership ... where our members are responding to Trump's message," she told former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod in a January interview.
The head of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, struck a similar chord in a speech earlier this month: "Donald Trump is tapping into the very real and very understandable anger of working people," Richard Trumka told a gathering of construction unionists. "When Trump says were losing, his message resonates with some folks. And when he yells or lashes out, he finds a sympathetic audience who wishes more politicians would express the frustration they feel."
Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America union who recently became a labor adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' campaign, told International Business Times he has witnessed firsthand how Trumps rhetoric resonates with some union members on the campaign trail. Without Sanders and his brand of left-wing populism in the race, rank-and-file support for Trump would be even greater, he said.
I think you have to look not just at the Clintons but [also at] the migration of the Democratic establishment in and out of finance capital, their families, their contributions, the way they combine social liberalism with free market economics and some lip service to workers rights but deliver nothing, Cohen said. People have had it with that liberal establishment.
www.ibtimes.com%2Funion-members-gravitating-toward-trump-amid-tough-talk-trade-immigration-2331971&usg=AFQjCNHh69zS-R45dPRTImq_793DXM6iCA
WASHINGTON Of all the voters who might be expected to resist the charms of Donald J. Trump, the two million members of the Service Employees International Union would most likely be near the top of the list.
The union, which endorsed Hillary Clinton in November, is widely regarded as one of the more progressive in the labor movement. It skews female and racially diverse roughly the opposite of a Trump rally, in other words.
But the unions president, Mary Kay Henry, acknowledged that Mr. Trump holds appeal even for some of her members. There is deep economic anxiety among our members and the people were trying to organize that I believe Donald Trumps message is tapping into, Ms. Henry said.
In expressing her concern, Ms. Henry reflected a different form of anxiety that is weighing on some union leaders and Democratic operatives: their fear that Mr. Trump, if not effectively countered, may draw an unusually large number of union voters in a possible general election matchup. This could, in turn, bolster Republicans in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, all of which President Obama won twice.
The source of the attraction to Mr. Trump, say union members and leaders, is manifold: the candidates unapologetically populist positions on certain economic issues, particularly trade; a frustration with the impotence of conventional politicians; and above all, a sense that he rejects the norms of Washington discourse.
They feel hes the one guy whos saying whats on peoples minds, Thomas Hanify, the president of the Indiana state firefighters union, said of his rank and file.
Mr. Hanify said that Mr. Trump has so far dominated the firehouse chatter in his state. While he allowed that his members tilt Republican, he estimated that most followed the lead of the unions international leadership and supported Mr. Obama in 2008 and 2012.
Ms. Henry and other labor leaders remain confident that they can keep their members in the fold by making a case that the Republicans economic agenda, including Mr. Trumps, runs counter to the interests of working people. But they also see Mr. Trump as posing particular risks.
Anyone who talks about dividing people in the country as a solution is a threat to the country, to democracy, the economy, and to working people, and we take every one of those seriously, said Richard L. Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
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merrily
(45,251 posts)amborin
(16,631 posts)griffi94
(3,733 posts)Nothing to be done now
but nominate Hillary.
Bernie just didn't get the votes he needed.
Stallion
(6,476 posts)perhaps he should have run in another party
silvershadow
(10,336 posts)the bus.
amborin
(16,631 posts)t candidate
Corporate666
(587 posts)The first has a quote from a guy who is an advisor to Sanders.. who airs his opinion that Trump would have more voters if Sanders dropped out. Well, I am sure that is true... would Trump have 2 more voters? 2,000 more? 2,000,000 more? I am sure Trump would have more voters if Hillary dropped out too - I am sure there are people for whom Trump is a 2nd choice to HRC.
The second article actually contradicts the supposition given because it points out that the SEIU is one of the more progressive unions and... they have endorsed Clinton.
Sanders isn't even mentioned in the article at all.
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)High proportions of Sanders voters sat they support Trump. My explanation is that SBS offers Trump-supporting lie-believing Hillary haters a chance to vote against her NOW, without waiting until November. IMO SBS needs to stop echoing and helping The Donald NOW and go back to work as a VT Senator.
amborin
(16,631 posts)ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)should allow itself to be taken over by a Trump faction?
To paraphrase Harry Truman, given a choice between Trump and Trump, voters will choose Trump every time.
Rass
(112 posts)At my last job interview, the interviewer made a comment about hiring me or someone from India. I spent many years of studying and constantly training to learn my trade. It is fun being in a technical job but the the wages are depressed by greedy offshoring. Hillary has a long established history of free-trade policies that support offshoring. Guess who I am not ever going to vote for?
If Trump wasn't such an asshole, bigot, racist or childish he would have my vote. At least he is pledging to fight free-trade offshoring. The Democratic party will be in big trouble if they don't fight for the working class. Hillary is part of the problem and in the information age, it is harder to hide this fact.