Labor Day Really Matters

It's a Day to Celebrate Those Who Built America and to Understand What This Election is About

If you don’t understand why Labor Day is a holiday in the United States of America, you don’t understand the history of this country and the role organized labor had in building our middle class and the country itself. Just as we celebrate the sacrifices of those in the military, we certainly should honor those who devoted their lives to make this country a better place—and union members include many who deserve our thanks and praise from teachers to construction workers, cops to firefighters, those who provide the service in the service economy and who provide the creativity and hard work that produces the movies, television, theater and music that are the pillars of our culture.

There was a time—back when I was in the Clinton Administration—during which I hear many smart folks saying stupid things about unions including that they were dying and good riddance to them. That did not happen. What is more during the past few years we have seen a new resurgence among unions among workers in new industries and from Millennials and Gen Z. The Biden-Harris Administration took that support to new levels with Biden even walking a picket line. And today the Vice President, Gov. Walz and President Biden all took to the campaign trail to celebrate the day and its meaning.

Why has it happened? Well, for one thing, we have entered a new era of exploitative robber barons like those in the tech sector including Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and a new wave of support for them from the likes of Donald Trump who has celebrated efforts at union busting by them and others.

It is all part of the divide that lies at the center of this year’s elections. We often talk about that divide in terms of a culture war here in the U.S. But that is a term that does not have much meaning for most folks. What is more, it elevates one side in that war—the side that promotes hate and intolerance—as having a different “cultural perspective.” That serves them fine and enables those with no values to talk as though they had them.

But I would argue that deeper than the cultural divide in the United States is the economic divide. What is more, it is those who are the authors of that divide, the ultra rich, our oligarchs, the 1 percent, who are fostering the division in this country not because of what they believe in but rather out of sheer greed. They have much, more than they need, and they want more.

This coming election is about many things, but for those who are bankrolling Trump, it is really only about one thing, increasing their wealth. That is why, last time around, the only real legislative accomplishment of the Trump Administration was a big tax cut that primarily benefitted the best off among us. They know Trump is a garbage human being. They don’t care provided he provides them with the payoff they seek.

They want lower taxes. They want fewer regulations so corporate profits can grow. They want to block programs that direct government resources to those in need because the fewer programs, the lower the cost of government, the lower their taxes. They don’t want weak government for ideological reasons. They want it for economic reasons.

They are the reason the share of wealth of the top 1 and 10 percent has grown but the minimum wage has not. They are the reason that Trump will try to cut Medicare and Medicaid. They are the reason they want to shut the Department of Education and the National Weather Bureau. They are the reason that if there are tax hikes, they will be born primarily be those in the middle of the income spectrum and not those at the top.

They are the exploiters. During the 1990s when the information revolution was just starting and the luster was still on the promise of Silicon Valley, we in the government thought that this new technology would be democratizing and that the relatively young, next generation leaders behind it would be more virtuous and public-minded than the moguls and fat cats that had come before them.

We were wrong. Now many of the tech billionaires who are household names are known because they are, like Musk and Bezos and Zuckerberg and Thiel and Andreessen and so many others, supporters of Trump or elements on the right and of others who can be and must be seen as fellow exploiters from Koch to Mellon to Harlan Crow and some familiar Wall Street titans.

As it happens, Labor Day is also the traditional start of the main stretch of election campaign season in America. Which as you can see, could not be more apt.