UAW

 I'm not usually a fan of Erik Loomis' takes, but he lands on something interesting here. Loomis is a labor historian and pretty far to the left, but even he notes that it's not simply pocketbook issues that drive votes. The piece he links to includes - wait for it - a Hillary Clinton/Donald Trump voter. How do you vote for Clinton in 2016 and vote for Trump in 2020? How is that possible? 

Some of it is what many commentators have noted about a certain cultural leftness in the Democratic Party that completely alienates these folks. I think James Carville termed it "Faculty Lounge Politics." Obsessing about the use of Latinx or pronouns. I'm very skeptical that the sort of theory that by changing words we can change attitudes, because changing the words typically creates a challenging set of conditions for people who don't get what you're trying to do. 

The Politico piece that Loomis links to includes a few autoworkers going after Biden on his age. There's also the standard "they all suck" position. Look, if you think Biden in non compos mentis, then how the hell do you listen to Trump for more than 15 seconds and not arrive at the same conclusion? And "they all suck" suggests that you're not interested in looking at policy outcomes, you're just angry. And Loomis, to his credit, does not try and force the discussion back into the sort of "Democrats are just as bad as Republicans" box that many on the left try to do.

The sort of soft Marxist idea that everything is about economics founders on the reality that most people vote their vibes. Of course, Loomis goes on to say that the Democratic party hasn't really been on the autoworkers' side for a long time. The main targets of ire of Democrats selling out the laboring class are Clinton and Obama. What's ironic is that real wages did rise during Clinton's presidency and Obama saved the auto industry with a bailout. However, the inequality that we see in America does mean that too much of the rewards in our system go to the very top. That isn't a Democratic problem - if anything they are the only ones talking about it. But as Loomis notes, the Republicans offer a different narrative of why they are falling behind: immigrants, drag queens, whatever.

The unanswered question is whether Biden standing up for the UAW strike would even matter. There isn't anything that can be done legislatively, and legislation is required to unfuck the NLRB. Even if Biden offers as much rhetorical support as possible, it won't make up for the vibes. It won't make up for the culture war stuff. 

The ironic part is that Biden is not a faculty lounge politics guy. He's not out there excoriating people for using the wrong pronouns; he's the most openly pro-labor president we've had in decades. Still once your poisoned with Fox News bullshit, it's hard to see the reality of the situation. Not when you have your vibes to fall back on.