00:00You mentioned appealing to working-class voters, and I am thinking about the Teamsters president
00:07who spoke at the RNC.
00:09And as we talk about history that's been made this week, this is perhaps more of a policy
00:13wonk piece of history, but that has never happened.
00:18You normally hear union and you think DNC, if anyone's going to speak at a convention.
00:23Can you put into perspective the significance of the Teamsters appearing at the RNC?
00:30Yeah, well, back in the 70s and even maybe the late 60s a little bit was when you first
00:37saw this drift of the working class from Democratic to Republican.
00:42And I believe George Meany, I forget if he was the head of Teamsters or AFL-CIO, endorsed
00:50Nixon.
00:51So there was some precedent back then.
00:56And then in the 90s, Bill Clinton won back labor.
01:01Labor was big in Bill Clinton's corner.
01:03You know, anyone who remembers sort of the anti-impeachment rallies remember these big
01:08beefy union guys coming with their pre-made signs.
01:13So labor kind of came back to the Democratic fold.
01:17But while the leadership of labor did, you know, ordinary working class voters, many
01:24of whom were no longer in unions, actually, because unions have been getting progressively
01:30weaker for many decades as we no longer have an industrial economy, which is sort of what
01:36unions were for.
01:38So, you know, there's some suggestion that Sean O'Brien might be sort of following his
01:45base rather than leading them.
01:47That as these voters are just, you know, more pro-Trump, they just have more conservative
01:53views on all kinds of social issues, immigration, gender, race, you know, it makes sense for
02:00their leaders to say, you know, I want you to, you know, I'm going to stick with you
02:04and where your political priorities are.
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