Historian Explains The Significance Of The Teamsters President Speaking At The RNC

2 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," presidential historian Professor David Greenberg spoke about the Teamsters president speaking at the RNC.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

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.

Historian Explains The Significance Of The Teamsters President Speaking At The RNC

Category

Transcript

Recommended