Jess Walter
Because today’s Republican Party is a billionaire-first party that employs cynical tools to pry middle-class voters away from their best interests
Choosing one reason to support Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is a bit like picking a single reason to prefer breakfast over botulism.
But I’m going to go with this one: work.
Here is my own personal work history, beginning when I was ten years old: summer ranch hand, paperboy, fast-food cook, irrigation ditch digger, dishwasher, journeyman plumber’s assistant, busser, waiter, bartender, newspaper reporter, teacher, and, for the last couple of decades, writer.
I was born working class, a first-generation college student and the first male in my direct line to graduate high school. My father was a steelworker, pipefitter, and union officer; my grandfather a welder and cattle rancher. I live in the town they did and remain irrationally proud of the work ethic my parents and grandparents instilled in me—even as my hands have gotten a little soft.
And so it infuriates me—and breaks my blue-collar heart—to watch MAGA Republicans try to claim they represent what’s left of the working class while their policies leave workers poorer, more embittered, and less protected, and have utterly decimated the middle class that my parents and grandparents aspired to join.
Today’s Republican Party is a billionaire-first party that uses a cynical two-part playbook to pry middle-class voters away from their best interests: first, employ Orwellian language like “right to work” (for less money, they mean, with fewer protections and no health care). And second, distract workers with fringe social issues in the hopes of convincing them that their well-being is less important than who poops in which bathroom.
Block out this faux-cultural NASCAR-level noise, and you’re left with a simple truth. Kamala Harris is the only choice for voters who care about workers and their rights.
Harris helped lead the most worker-friendly and effective administration in decades, increasing wages and growing the labor market while steering the country away from what experts predicted would be a certain recession.
Biden-Harris inherited an economy destroyed by Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic, leading to runaway unemployment and rising inflation. The Biden-Harris policy triumphs—the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act steadied the economy, saved pensions, created millions of green jobs, lowered prescription drug costs, and cut the unemployment rate in half. Policies take time to implement, but the most recent US Bureau of Labor and Statistics show hourly pay for production and non-supervising workers (four-fifths of the workforce) up to a record $30.27 an hour. With inflation finally under control, buying power is higher than it was when Biden and Harris took office.
Vice President Harris has been a tireless supporter of labor, serving as chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, refusing to cross picket lines and twice casting the deciding votes in the Senate for labor-friendly legislation.
As a senator, Harris sponsored and helped pass legislation to guarantee workers the right to organize and the freedom to negotiate contracts, to strengthen workplace safety, to protect basic protections and rights on the job site, and to protect whistleblowers from retribution. As attorney general, she fought against wage theft, pension misappropriation, and pharmaceutical companies misleading patients.
Trump, meanwhile, has offered the middle class nothing but lip service, Kid Rock, and some frankly disturbing dance moves, all while eroding the rights of workers.
As president, Trump packed the federal courts and National Labor Relations Board with anti-labor judges and appointees who weakened worker rights, took away the freedom to join unions, and stalled union elections. His policies gutted overtime pay, reduced safety inspectors, and made it easier for employers to fire workers who fight for higher pay and union membership.
In a telling, recent live conversation with Elon Musk, Trump praised Musk’s brutal dealings with his own workers at Twitter and other places. “You walk in and say, ‘You want to quit?’ I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s okay. You’re all gone.’”
In Trump’s own business dealings, he stiffed hundreds of contractors and businesspeople, simply refusing to pay for work they provided. His countless paper bankruptcies left him unscathed while crushing workers on his building projects. A USA Today investigation found some 3,500 lawsuits from “ordinary Americans … who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.”
In the meantime, while pretending to criticize the effect of foreign workers on the American economy, Trump continues to be an outsourcing menace, hawking everything from foreign-made ties and tennis shoes to, most recently, Bibles. Made in China. For $3. Which he sells for $59.99.
I could go on, but like an aging gunfighter, I’ve run out of bullets.
And I’m hungry for breakfast.
Jess Walter is the award-winning author of ten books.