10 Comments

Also the unions in the US are infected by a particular odious disease. More and more people in the US are not anymore motivated by making the world a better place for all, or at least by making it a better place for themselves. There is a growing group that is more motivated to make the world a worse place for people that they consider “other”. They are getting satisfaction from making life more miserable for others, even if that makes life worse for themselves as well (as long as it is worse for the others).

Trump tapped into this sentiment brilliantly and convinced large groups to completely vote against their own interests, just because he promised to make life miserable or a complete hell for “others”. These people cannot not be convinced by sound policy or a rationale on how their lives would improve under a different president, they are not interested in this at all.

Unfortunately we are seeing the same in Canada. It is easy to pick on trans children and teachers who are trying to protect them. It is much harder and expensive to fund public properly and provide a decent education. Slowly but surely, also in Canada, we are going see politicians tap into these kind of sentiments.

Expand full comment

“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”

Expand full comment

Do you happen to know the author? It is spot on, unfortunately.

Expand full comment

It’s been floating around for a few years. I’ve seen various attributions

Expand full comment

I'm calling BS on this. I am extremely dubious that "blue collar" union types are any more homophobic, racist, etc than any other group. I would like too see some proof, if you don't mind. What the Teamsters recognize is that the Democrats are party of Wall Street. After all, who was in power when all of the bail-outs occurred? The Democrats have already made their feelings about the "deplorables" quite clear. Why then should those people be expected to vote for the Democrats?

Expand full comment

They aren't more racist than the non-union people around them, they are just as racist as the people around them which is like a 4 or a 5. on 10 Not active hatred, but like, not willing to do transactions with different others unless necessary. Also, the point of the article is to say that *we shouldn't expect them to vote for democrats, and thats completely okay. Make up for it in the suburbs.

Expand full comment

i was listening to a FDR speech about the Forgotten Man and his new deal lifting the country from the bottom up. Dems sank when they abandoned this. Trump will actually do nothing for the Forgotten Man, but he does sound like them, he shows up on their media, and he says things they like to hear. He has created a perception with them, which is more than the Dems who sent their jobs to Mexico

Expand full comment

Or, you know I mean occams razor. The forgotten man in america is someone from like a dying rust belt area you mean? Dude, they just like the racism and thats kinda it. They were democrats because their fathers were democrats and nothing more. Winning unions and crap would be a gigantic waste of effort if the electoral college didn't exist, but they gotta play ball because of certain states. I know people from the rural midwest. If you are over the age of 30 and you haven't moved out, you are probably on hard drugs there and have multiple run ins with the law. The people who don't get out of there are completely ambitionless.

Expand full comment

I think your last paragraph is much more accurate than your title. It’s not the death of transactional politics, it’s a new understanding of them. And the left has been very, very slow in learning the new rules

The big federal tax cut of a few years ago didn’t even make a ripple. But the UCP in Alberta is having their AGM soon and the agenda shows a big enthusiastic group of people who are very clear on the quid-pro-quos they’re interested in, none of which have anything to do with anything resembling traditional economic interests.

Across the country, collapsing hospitals and ballooning class sizes simply aren’t moving the needle anywhere. At the same time, a regional Middle East conflict is causing ten times the domestic upheavals than any domestic issues are.

I suspect Trudeau’s TMX purchase will go down as the official death of old transactional politics. The people who he bought it for seemed almost offended than he thought they actually cared about the reality of the thing rather than its symbolism, which made whether it got built or not almost beside the point

Expand full comment

It is likely about swing state politics, given the blue collar quotient in key swing states like Michigan and Pennsylvania etc.

Expand full comment