thenation--2020-08-25--There Is Power Even Without a Union

There Is Power Even Without a Union

Christiansburg , Va. , resembles many other towns in the United States .
There ’ s a small city center surrounded by strip malls , and the vast sprawl is where most economic activity occurs .
Given that these corporate landscapes now dominate the country , maybe it ’ s appropriate that this is where a radical labor movement is taking shape.1 This project was made possible in part by support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project .
In the basement bedroom of his parents ’ small brick house along a hilly Christiansburg back road , Adam Ryan , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has amassed a tool kit for revolution : a megaphone , research reports and fliers , and hundreds of books—biographies of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx , histories of Jim Crow and capitalism , and guides about organizing workers and the benefits and limits of unions.2 This room has become an unlikely organizing center .
Ryan wants to help build a workers ’ movement that does not rely on unions or nonprofits to educate or organize and instead trains the workers to do it themselves .
The problem , according to him and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the big traditional unions have had their missions whittled down .
They no longer fight to have workers at the levers of power , preferring to bargain for better conditions at specific companies .
That has alienated radicals like Ryan .
They don ’ t want just a better contract .
They want a worker-controlled future.3 Ryan is guided by the belief that nearly everything good for workers will not be accomplished by paid organizers , nonprofits , or lobbying groups but will have to come from low-paid workers.4 The result is Target @ @ @ @ @ @ @ created in 2018 and has had involvement from Target employees across 44 states .
There are currently about 500 TWU members , and that number is rapidly growing through the Covid-19 crisis as workers struggle to pay their bills and deal with managers who have underplayed the disease ’ s threat and with a corporation that has , like many of its ilk , refused to give employees comprehensive paid sick leave.5 “ Folks are becoming more agitated , ” Ryan told me .
“ I think that leaves us with a good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m hoping that ’ s the good thing that can come out of all this , that we come out of this more organized and unified as workers—as essential workers.
” 6 TWU was birthed partly out of his frustration with the organizing that the unions were doing with retail workers .
Before moving back to Christiansburg , Ryan was living in Richmond , Va. , and held a string of restaurant and retail jobs .
At each , he tried to organize workers , but he said the unions didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Workers of the World , Ryan said , he felt they were just telling him , “ Let ’ s run everybody through the organizer training and then tell everybody to just go organize their workplaces , ” without much continued support.8 And he said it seemed the big groups , like the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union ( UFCW ) , had too much of a top-down approach : They come in , help you get set up , help negotiate your contracts , then leave .
For Ryan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emphasis on politicizing workers .
Many unions , he said , want to smooth over the worker-boss relationship .
He wants the opposite ; he wants to agitate it.9 As the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd spread , Ryan tried to talk to his fellow Target employees about how issues of labor , racism , and policing are related .
Floyd was killed in Minneapolis , where Target has its corporate headquarters and where the company has formed a close relationship with the police .
But many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back on his attempts to show the links .
He said some of his colleagues are so accustomed to labor organizing being siloed from issues of race that he has found it hard to convince them that the fight for higher wages and the fight against the racist American justice system can be one and the same.10 “ We need to be pointing out how these things are connected , ” Ryan said .
“ [ The mainstream ] unions ignore all those connections.
” 11 It ’ s not that he is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ joining one in the future , but he said trade unions have lost their way .
Gone is the anti-capitalist rhetoric of the early and mid-1900s , during which unions supported workers seizing factories .
Now unions represent the police Ryan would like to organize against.12 For the past 100 years , us labor law has left many workers out of unions altogether .
Contractors , who now make up 20 percent of the American labor force , typically can ’ t join .
That has led to a long history of workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of worker centers—where laborers can learn about their rights , meet one another , and obtain legal services—ballooned in the 1990s and early 2000s .
There are also dozens of alliances that aren ’ t unions but fight for workers ’ rights in similar ways .
The National Domestic Workers Alliance has won wage increases and helped enact legal protections for domestic laborers .
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has organized tomato farm laborers into a hunger strike , eventually winning wage increases across the industry.13 For now , TWU is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no nonprofit status , no outside donors , just rank-and-file Target workers organizing themselves , largely through the Internet.14 Ryan concluded this was the best tack after trying and failing to unionize workplaces in Richmond .
In 2017 , just as Donald Trump was taking office , Ryan moved in with his parents , Republicans with a love for Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network .
He set up his basement as a communist haven and got to work.15 He applied for a job at the local Target .
He needed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as an opportunity to salt— become an employee with the goal of organizing the workplace .
He works about 20 to 25 hours a week and makes around $ 12,000 a year.16 Ryan drives the few miles from his parents ’ home to the suburban strip where Target is the centerpiece of a shopping center that ’ s reminiscent of thousands of others .
This one also has a Home Depot , Petco , and Chick-fil-A.17 Shortly after getting the job , Ryan began agitating .
His colleagues had complained about a manager @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a few other workers gathered testimonials and planned a ministrike .
Ryan stood outside the store with a small group of supporters .
Local unions arrived to show solidarity , and the media covered the demonstration .
A few weeks later , he got news that the manager no longer worked at the store .
It became a blueprint for organizing against Target : Magnify the gap between what the company preaches and how it acts.18 “ They ’ re so focused on their public image , and the amount of attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was enough to force them to concede to our demand , ” Ryan said.19 For that reason , he said , he isn ’ t too worried about retaliation .
In fact , the more public he is , the better ; privately complaining about a store isn ’ t considered protected concerted activity by the National Labor Relations Board , but organizing out in the open is.20 The stats on labor organizing are grim .
Just over 10 percent of the country ’ s workforce is in a union—a 50 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ retail , only 5 percent of workers are organized .
The reasons should be familiar to most Nation readers : union busting , right-to-work laws , and labor unions hobbled financially to the point that they can not effectively organize outside their remaining strongholds.21 The legal structure of unionization in the US also shares much of the blame .
There are so many loopholes in worker protection laws that it ’ s relatively easy for employers to get away with firing people for organizing .
During the Covid-19 pandemic , employers like Amazon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get away with what is clearly union busting.22 Kate Andrias , a law professor at the University of Michigan , told me that for several decades the Supreme Court and the National Labor Relations Board under Trump have consistently interpreted laws in favor of corporations .
“ I don ’ t think it ’ s the case that it ’ s impossible for workers to engage in successful concerted action in a hostile legal regime , ” she said .
“ But it certainly doesn ’ t help that the laws frequently fail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But to Ryan and others , there ’ s another problem : Many Americans simply do not want to join unions .
Recent labor campaigns have failed by large margins .
In 2018 the UFCW attempted to organize a Target on Long Island in New York .
Nearly four out of five employees voted against it .
Last year employees at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee rejected unionization for the second time .
Organization United for Respect at Walmart , a unionization campaign funded in part by the UFCW , also couldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dent in the company ’ s million-strong workforce.24 “ There ’ s a whole generation or two of mistrust or suspicion or at least resignation that these unions will not be able to do anything for them , ” said Dan Graff , the director of the Higgins Labor Program at the University of Notre Dame .
“ It ’ s kind of a vicious cycle .
The labor movement gets smaller .
Unions then look less able to do anything .
And it ’ s hard to escape that.
” 25 Most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to criticize unions .
But a big part of Ryan ’ s pitch to workers is that skeptical workers are right : Unions haven ’ t been doing enough .
Decades ago , most of them abandoned radical acts and strikes in favor of contract negotiations .
He points to a UPS contract negotiation in 2018 , during which workers voted against the contract but the union ratified it anyway.26 “ They don ’ t organize workers to develop their capacity to be leaders , ” he said .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ internationals to determine all that for them .
We ’ re not a formal union , and we ’ re not really seeking that at this point… .
We got the right to organize .
We got the right to strike .
What more do we need to do what we want to do ?
” 27 At the same time , corporations have gotten better at persuading their employees to remain nonunionized , and Target is among the best .
Instead of firing organizers—as Amazon appears to be doing—the company has become @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers .
When the Fight for $ 15 campaign to raise the minimum hourly wage was gaining traction a few years ago , Target was one of the first big corporations to announce a gradual increase in pay , garnering praise from many outside the company .
But then to offset the higher rate , Target began cutting hours and health benefits , which received much less attention than the increase .
Ryan and other Target employees see this strategy on a micro level , too .
If employees complain about anything , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issues through management or call the employee hot line .
( Target did not respond to requests for an interview . )
28 “ Many workers get taken in by this , ” at Target and other companies , said Gordon Lafer , a professor at the University of Oregon ’ s Labor Education and Research Center .
“ They ’ re scared to be activists , because they ’ re scared to lose their jobs , so they hold off on collective action while giving the boss a chance .
This can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suck the momentum out of collective action.
” 29 But many labor experts think this is changing .
Over the past few years , dozens of worker groups have gone on strike without the backing of unions—teachers in West Virginia , gig laborers for Uber and Lyft , graduate students at the University of California at Santa Cruz .
And Americans are increasingly sympathetic to labor .
After bottoming out in 2009 , support for unions has risen .
Last year nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed by Gallup said they had a favorable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of approval in 50 years .
Simply put , workers are fed up and taking action.30 Sharon Keel is one of those workers .
She has worked at Targets in three states for a total of 13 years and currently works in Christiansburg with Ryan .
When she started , she found she had little to complain about but little to be enthusiastic about.31 Her hours were OK , and she had health insurance .
Management never applauded her work , but she could make ends meet .
Then Target cut her hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She hadn ’ t gone to a doctor for five years , until March of this year , when she turned 65 and Medicare kicked in .
Then something seemingly insignificant made Keel reconsider her relationship with the company .
A few years ago , as she marked a decade with the company , she heard that it gave employees a $ 50 Target gift card for 10 years of employment .
It didn ’ t give one to her because her years had been officially reset to zero because of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gotten worse since then .
This year Keel ’ s father died , and she couldn ’ t afford to attend his funeral in Alabama .
Target used to give employees paid time off for funerals and a sympathy card .
It does neither now , she said .
The gift card , the sympathy card—they ’ re small gestures , but they convinced her that the company she ’ d worked so hard for did not care about her .
“ You ’ re just a number , ” she said.33 She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me she now tries to persuade her fellow employees to join , too.34 “ I grew up [ in Detroit ] seeing the AFL-CIO , and I just thought that was the best thing ever , ” she said .
She idolized Norma Rae , the union agitator played by Sally Field in the eponymous 1979 film .
“ Because , I mean , that was how I felt , that that would be me.
” 35 Ryan bought Keel a poster of the movie .
It hangs on a wall in her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a motivator .
the fear of retaliation hasn ’ t lessened , but the fear of everything else has grown—and that ’ s an opportunity for organizers .
Ryan and countless others have seized the opening provided by the coronavirus crisis to galvanize workers .
He answers questions and posts information for Target workers on TWU ’ s private Facebook page nearly every day .
There , workers have detailed how Target hasn ’ t provided adequate protective equipment , how customers appear not to care about how close they get to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into work each day .
They don ’ t have much of a choice .
Target won ’ t pay for time off for employees unless they provide a doctor ’ s note that says they were required to be quarantined or they get a positive coronavirus test result , forcing workers to choose between missing pay if they exhibit any symptoms and getting others sick.37 “ It ’ s stressful , ” one worker said .
“ If I get sick , I can ’ t go home.
” Another said he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the pandemic .
“ We can be sick .
Some could die .
But we all need to eat and pay bills.
” 38 Each week , Ryan has been leading video meetings , teaching Target workers their basic labor rights and encouraging them to organize in public and with TWU.39 Workers from other companies are also beginning to organize with TWU , including at Shipt , a business that delivers goods from Target and elsewhere that , like the rest of the gig economy , relies on independent contractors .
Willy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said organizing gig workers is hard because they are by design dispersed and much of what they say to one another can be surveilled by the company .
Nonetheless , thousands of Shipt workers have reached out to Solis wanting to organize since the Covid-19 crisis started.40 Despite the rapid growth of TWU , it ’ s still tiny—a few hundred members in a corporation that employs 368,000 people .
But Ryan draws inspiration from the largely successful wildcat teachers ’ strikes in 2018 , not only because they were started by workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ snowballed into a national movement but also because he sees them as a necessary escalation .
When I spoke with him in March , he predicted that more militant actions were not far off .
Sure enough , two months later , the country erupted over a series of police killings.41 “ The pandemic is the straw that broke the camel ’ s back , ” he said.42 Andrias said this new wave of labor action is likely to continue .
“ I think we ’ re in a moment of crisis where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said.43 Little legacy of labor organizing exists in America ’ s corporate sprawl .
But taking what he has—books and research , online organizing , and most important , the increasing anger of the working class—Ryan believes he can help create something lasting , an ever-growing group of self-trained organizers devoted to building labor power.44 From his basement bedroom , Ryan thought back to what helped get him into organizing : Occupy Wall Street .
That , he said , reminded Americans that class still existed and that the working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he ’ s seen Black Lives Matter , the Bernie Sanders campaign , wildcat strikes across the country , and the ongoing uprisings against law enforcement .
In Ryan ’ s eyes , it ’ s only a matter of time before all of these movements coalesce into something larger , perhaps a general strike , something TWU wants to be ready to help organize.45 “ Workers are organizing and resisting , but it ’ s still very underdeveloped , and it ’ s still very weak , and especially in places @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re having to rebuild all that from scratch , ” Ryan said .
“ But there ’ s definitely a moment , and there ’ s definitely going to be something that shifts beyond it .
It isn ’ t just going to stay like this forever .
I don ’ t think we ’ re going back to an old normal .
That ’ s done.
” 46

This article appears in the September 7/14, 2020 issue.
Christiansburg, Va., resembles many other towns in the United States. There’s a small city center surrounded by strip malls, and the vast sprawl is where most economic activity occurs. Given that these corporate landscapes now dominate the country, maybe it’s appropriate that this is where a radical labor movement is taking shape.1 This project was made possible in part by support from the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
In the basement bedroom of his parents’ small brick house along a hilly Christiansburg back road, Adam Ryan, a 31-year-old part-time sales associate at Target, has amassed a tool kit for revolution: a megaphone, research reports and fliers, and hundreds of books—biographies of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, histories of Jim Crow and capitalism, and guides about organizing workers and the benefits and limits of unions.2
This room has become an unlikely organizing center. Ryan wants to help build a workers’ movement that does not rely on unions or nonprofits to educate or organize and instead trains the workers to do it themselves. The problem, according to him and others doing similar work, is that the big traditional unions have had their missions whittled down. They no longer fight to have workers at the levers of power, preferring to bargain for better conditions at specific companies. That has alienated radicals like Ryan. They don’t want just a better contract. They want a worker-controlled future.3
Ryan is guided by the belief that nearly everything good for labor will not be accomplished by paid organizers, nonprofits, or lobbying groups but will have to come from low-paid workers.4
The result is Target Workers Unite, a group that Ryan created in 2018 and has had involvement from Target employees across 44 states. There are currently about 500 TWU members, and that number is rapidly growing through the Covid-19 crisis as workers struggle to pay their bills and deal with managers who have underplayed the disease’s threat and with a corporation that has, like many of its ilk, refused to give employees comprehensive paid sick leave.5
“Folks are becoming more agitated,” Ryan told me. “I think that leaves us with a good basis to organize our coworkers. I’m hoping that’s the good thing that can come out of all this, that we come out of this more organized and unified as workers—as essential workers.”6
TWU was birthed partly out of his frustration with the organizing that the unions were doing with retail workers. Before moving back to Christiansburg, Ryan was living in Richmond, Va., and held a string of restaurant and retail jobs. At each, he tried to organize workers, but he said the unions didn’t lend enough support.7 Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
With the Industrial Workers of the World, Ryan said, he felt they were just telling him, “Let’s run everybody through the organizer training and then tell everybody to just go organize their workplaces,” without much continued support.8
And he said it seemed the big groups, like the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), had too much of a top-down approach: They come in, help you get set up, help negotiate your contracts, then leave. For Ryan, there wasn’t enough of an emphasis on politicizing workers. Many unions, he said, want to smooth over the worker-boss relationship. He wants the opposite; he wants to agitate it.9
As the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd spread, Ryan tried to talk to his fellow Target employees about how issues of labor, racism, and policing are related. Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, where Target has its corporate headquarters and where the company has formed a close relationship with the police. But many of Ryan’s coworkers have pushed back on his attempts to show the links. He said some of his colleagues are so accustomed to labor organizing being siloed from issues of race that he has found it hard to convince them that the fight for higher wages and the fight against the racist American justice system can be one and the same.10
“We need to be pointing out how these things are connected,” Ryan said. “[The mainstream] unions ignore all those connections.”11
It’s not that he is anti-union. He’s not against joining one in the future, but he said trade unions have lost their way. Gone is the anti-capitalist rhetoric of the early and mid-1900s, during which unions supported workers seizing factories. Now unions represent the police Ryan would like to organize against.12
For the past 100 years, US labor law has left many workers out of unions altogether. Contractors, who now make up 20 percent of the American labor force, typically can’t join. That has led to a long history of workers finding different paths to organizing. The number of worker centers—where laborers can learn about their rights, meet one another, and obtain legal services—ballooned in the 1990s and early 2000s. There are also dozens of alliances that aren’t unions but fight for workers’ rights in similar ways. The National Domestic Workers Alliance has won wage increases and helped enact legal protections for domestic laborers. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has organized tomato farm laborers into a hunger strike, eventually winning wage increases across the industry.13
For now, TWU is a little more anarchic. There’s no nonprofit status, no outside donors, just rank-and-file Target workers organizing themselves, largely through the Internet.14
Ryan concluded this was the best tack after trying and failing to unionize workplaces in Richmond. In 2017, just as Donald Trump was taking office, Ryan moved in with his parents, Republicans with a love for Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. He set up his basement as a communist haven and got to work.15
He applied for a job at the local Target. He needed the money, but he also saw it as an opportunity to salt— become an employee with the goal of organizing the workplace. He works about 20 to 25 hours a week and makes around $12,000 a year.16 Related Article Amid a Pandemic, Target Employees Work in Fear P.E. Moskowitz
Ryan drives the few miles from his parents’ home to the suburban strip where Target is the centerpiece of a shopping center that’s reminiscent of thousands of others. This one also has a Home Depot, Petco, and Chick-fil-A.17
Shortly after getting the job, Ryan began agitating. His colleagues had complained about a manager who sexually harassed his employees. Ryan and a few other workers gathered testimonials and planned a ministrike. Ryan stood outside the store with a small group of supporters. Local unions arrived to show solidarity, and the media covered the demonstration. A few weeks later, he got news that the manager no longer worked at the store. It became a blueprint for organizing against Target: Magnify the gap between what the company preaches and how it acts.18
“They’re so focused on their public image, and the amount of attention we’re able to get on it was enough to force them to concede to our demand,” Ryan said.19
For that reason, he said, he isn’t too worried about retaliation. In fact, the more public he is, the better; privately complaining about a store isn’t considered protected concerted activity by the National Labor Relations Board, but organizing out in the open is.20
The stats on labor organizing are grim. Just over 10 percent of the country’s workforce is in a union—a 50 percent decrease since the ’80s. In retail, only 5 percent of workers are organized. The reasons should be familiar to most Nation readers: union busting, right-to-work laws, and labor unions hobbled financially to the point that they cannot effectively organize outside their remaining strongholds.21
The legal structure of unionization in the US also shares much of the blame. There are so many loopholes in worker protection laws that it’s relatively easy for employers to get away with firing people for organizing. During the Covid-19 pandemic, employers like Amazon have cited vague employee policy violations to get away with what is clearly union busting.22
Kate Andrias, a law professor at the University of Michigan, told me that for several decades the Supreme Court and the National Labor Relations Board under Trump have consistently interpreted laws in favor of corporations. “I don’t think it’s the case that it’s impossible for workers to engage in successful concerted action in a hostile legal regime,” she said. “But it certainly doesn’t help that the laws frequently fail to effectively protect collective action.”23
But to Ryan and others, there’s another problem: Many Americans simply do not want to join unions. Recent labor campaigns have failed by large margins. In 2018 the UFCW attempted to organize a Target on Long Island in New York. Nearly four out of five employees voted against it. Last year employees at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee rejected unionization for the second time. Organization United for Respect at Walmart, a unionization campaign funded in part by the UFCW, also couldn’t draw enough support to make a dent in the company’s million-strong workforce.24
“There’s a whole generation or two of mistrust or suspicion or at least resignation that these unions will not be able to do anything for them,” said Dan Graff, the director of the Higgins Labor Program at the University of Notre Dame. “It’s kind of a vicious cycle. The labor movement gets smaller. Unions then look less able to do anything. And it’s hard to escape that.”25
Most people in the labor movement are loath to criticize unions. But a big part of Ryan’s pitch is that skeptical workers are right: Unions haven’t been doing enough. Decades ago, most of them abandoned radical acts and strikes in favor of contract negotiations. He points to a UPS contract negotiation in 2018, during which workers voted against the contract but the union ratified it anyway.26
“They don’t organize workers to develop their capacity to be leaders,” he said. “It’s up to the paid staff and the internationals to determine all that for them. We’re not a formal union, and we’re not really seeking that at this point…. We got the right to organize. We got the right to strike. What more do we need to do what we want to do?”27
At the same time, corporations have gotten better at persuading their employees to remain nonunionized, and Target is among the best. Instead of firing organizers—as Amazon appears to be doing—the company has become expert at doing just enough to placate workers. When the Fight for $15 campaign to raise the minimum hourly wage was gaining traction a few years ago, Target was one of the first big corporations to announce a gradual increase in pay, garnering praise from many outside the company. But then to offset the higher rate, Target began cutting hours and health benefits, which received much less attention than the increase. Ryan and other Target employees see this strategy on a micro level, too. If employees complain about anything, Target encourages them to work out the issues through management or call the employee hot line. (Target did not respond to requests for an interview.)28
“Many workers get taken in by this,” at Target and other companies, said Gordon Lafer, a professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center. “They’re scared to be activists, because they’re scared to lose their jobs, so they hold off on collective action while giving the boss a chance. This can go on for a long time and suck the momentum out of collective action.”29
But many labor experts think this is changing. Over the past few years, dozens of worker groups have gone on strike without the backing of unions—teachers in West Virginia, gig laborers for Uber and Lyft, graduate students at the University of California at Santa Cruz. And Americans are increasingly sympathetic to labor. After bottoming out in 2009, support for unions has risen. Last year nearly two-thirds of Americans surveyed by Gallup said they had a favorable view of unions—one of the highest levels of approval in 50 years. Simply put, workers are fed up and taking action.30
Sharon Keel is one of those workers. She has worked at Targets in three states for a total of 13 years and currently works in Christiansburg with Ryan. When she started, she found she had little to complain about but little to be enthusiastic about.31
Her hours were OK, and she had health insurance. Management never applauded her work, but she could make ends meet. Then Target cut her hours, making her ineligible for health insurance. She hadn’t gone to a doctor for five years, until March of this year, when she turned 65 and Medicare kicked in. Then something seemingly insignificant made Keel reconsider her relationship with the company. A few years ago, as she marked a decade with the company, she heard that it gave employees a $50 Target gift card for 10 years of employment. It didn’t give one to her because her years had been officially reset to zero because of a short employment gap between stores.32
Things have gotten worse since then. This year Keel’s father died, and she couldn’t afford to attend his funeral in Alabama. Target used to give employees paid time off for funerals and a sympathy card. It does neither now, she said. The gift card, the sympathy card—they’re small gestures, but they convinced her that the company she’d worked so hard for did not care about her. “You’re just a number,” she said.33
She began attending TWU meetings. She told me she now tries to persuade her fellow employees to join, too.34
“I grew up [in Detroit] seeing the AFL-CIO, and I just thought that was the best thing ever,” she said. She idolized Norma Rae, the union agitator played by Sally Field in the eponymous 1979 film. “Because, I mean, that was how I felt, that that would be me.”35
Ryan bought Keel a poster of the movie. It hangs on a wall in her trailer on the outskirts of town.36
Art for change: A drawing by a TWU member advertising a sick-out for hazard pay and improved personal protective equipment. (Courtesy of Target Workers Unite)
Fear is a motivator. The fear of retaliation hasn’t lessened, but the fear of everything else has grown—and that’s an opportunity for organizers. Ryan and countless others have seized the opening provided by the coronavirus crisis to galvanize workers. He answers questions and posts information for Target workers on TWU’s private Facebook page nearly every day. There, workers have detailed how Target hasn’t provided adequate protective equipment, how customers appear not to care about how close they get to employees, and how staffers dread going into work each day. They don’t have much of a choice. Target won’t pay for time off for employees unless they provide a doctor’s note that says they were required to be quarantined or they get a positive coronavirus test result, forcing workers to choose between missing pay if they exhibit any symptoms and getting others sick.37
“It’s stressful,” one worker said. “If I get sick, I can’t go home.” Another said he felt a constant low-grade panic working there during the pandemic. “We can be sick. Some could die. But we all need to eat and pay bills.”38
Each week, Ryan has been leading video meetings, teaching Target workers their basic labor rights and encouraging them to organize in public and with TWU.39
Workers from other companies are also beginning to organize with TWU, including at Shipt, a business that delivers goods from Target and elsewhere that, like the rest of the gig economy, relies on independent contractors. Willy Solis, a Shipt delivery person, said organizing gig workers is hard because they are by design dispersed and much of what they say to one another can be surveilled by the company. Nonetheless, thousands of Shipt workers have reached out to Solis wanting to organize since the Covid-19 crisis started.40
Despite the rapid growth of TWU, it’s still tiny—a few hundred members in a corporation that employs 368,000 people. But Ryan draws inspiration from the largely successful wildcat teachers’ strikes in 2018, not only because they were started by workers without the blessing of their union and snowballed into a national movement but also because he sees them as a necessary escalation. When I spoke with him in March, he predicted that more militant actions were not far off. Sure enough, two months later, the country erupted over a series of police killings.41
“The pandemic is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said.42
Andrias said this new wave of labor action is likely to continue. “I think we’re in a moment of crisis where workers are organizing despite all the obstacles,” she said.43
Little legacy of labor organizing exists in America’s corporate sprawl. But taking what he has—books and research, online organizing, and most important, the increasing anger of the working class—Ryan believes he can help create something lasting, an ever-growing group of self-trained organizers devoted to building labor power.44
From his basement bedroom, Ryan thought back to what helped get him into organizing: Occupy Wall Street. That, he said, reminded Americans that class still existed and that the working class needed to fight. Since then, he’s seen Black Lives Matter, the Bernie Sanders campaign, wildcat strikes across the country, and the ongoing uprisings against law enforcement. In Ryan’s eyes, it’s only a matter of time before all of these movements coalesce into something larger, perhaps a general strike, something TWU wants to be ready to help organize.45
“Workers are organizing and resisting, but it’s still very underdeveloped, and it’s still very weak, and especially in places like where I’m at…we’re having to rebuild all that from scratch,” Ryan said. “But there’s definitely a moment, and there’s definitely going to be something that shifts beyond it. It isn’t just going to stay like this forever. I don’t think we’re going back to an old normal. That’s done.”46


thenation--2020-08-25--The Party of Whatever the Hell Trump Says

The betrayal of the Republican Party began long ago , as party leaders compromised away the last of the basic premises on which it was founded .
But the final abandonment comes this week , with the gathering of partisans to end the party as anything more than a cult of personality .
Heading into the Republican National Convention that began on Monday , President Trump ’ s praetorian guard decreed that it would not present a fresh platform to voters in the 2020 election .
Instead , it greeted the convention with a one-page statement that concluded : RESOLVED @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention ; RESOLVED , That the 2020 Republican National Convention calls on the media to engage in accurate and unbiased reporting , especially as it relates to the strong support of the RNC for President Trump and his Administration ; and RESOLVED , That any motion to amend the 2016 Platform or to adopt a new platform , including any motion to suspend the procedures that will allow doing so , will be ruled out of order .
Platforms are the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans have historically taken their statements very seriously .
The platform drafting sessions of the 1960s and ’ 70s were pitched battles between mainstream Republicans , who took their cues from former president Dwight Eisenhower and governors such as Michigan ’ s George W. Romney , and the surging right-wing forces of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and California Governor Ronald Reagan .
The conservatives won , yet even Goldwater and Reagan—and any of the various George Bushes—respected the importance of platform debates .
So , too , did thousands of Republicans who engaged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and foreign policy issues .
Biden Can not Win ( or Govern ) as a Deficit Hawk Milwaukee Has a Lot to Teach Joe Biden and the Democrats No more .
Now the party that once presented its platform as “ our call to service , our pledge of leadership , our proposal of measures in the public interest ” says there is no need to explain where it stands on the issues because “ the RNC , had the Platform Committee been able to convene in 2020 , would have undoubtedly unanimously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration.
” So , you know , never mind .
Right ?
Wrong .
Americans like to imagine that their political parties stand for something more than servile complaisance to a washed-up reality-TV star .
So Republicans are sensitive to the suggestion that the failure to adopt a new platform suggests that the party is so under Trump ’ s thumb that it can ’ t entertain a discussion that is not scripted by the president and his minions .
The platform-replacement resolution that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ griping about media reports on the platform process that wasn ’ t .
“ The media , ” it complained , “ has outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting a new platform in 2020 and continues to engage in misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration , rather than providing the public with unbiased reporting of facts.
” But an unbiased reporting of the facts confirms that , even as the president continues to portray Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden as “ Sleepy Joe , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 92-page platform that featured 2,629 words on “ Protecting Americans and Recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic ” —a subject of some interest to 2020 voters .
The Democratic document—while too cautious on a number of issues , including Medicare for All , legalization of marijuana , and ending qualified immunity for police officers—is a lively statement that is very much of the moment and that reflects the movement of the Democratic Party toward more progressive responses on the climate crisis , job creation , and immigration reform .
While the Democratic platform announced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diversity is our greatest strength , ” the Republicans are announcing this week that Donald John Trump is their only strength .
No dissenters from the one true faith allowed .
Unlike last week ’ s Democratic convention , which featured Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders—the runner-up in an actual contest for the nomination of an actual party—and several other maverick voices , the Republican speaking schedule for this week ’ s convention consists of Trump family members , like screaming Donald Trump Jr. ; Trump family hangers-on , like screaming Kimberly Guilfoyle ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gaetz ; and Trump-friendly “ everyday Americans , ” like Patricia and Mark McCloskey , the St. Louis homeowners who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in June .
And , of course , on the first night , and the second night , and the third night , and the fourth night , the elder Trump himself .
On Monday , Trump flew into North Carolina during the day and then beamed into the virtual convention with a prime-time hanging-around-the-White-House video chat with folks who told the president just how very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ president .
Trump got the first word and the last word , and plenty of words in between .
Most of them were ominous , including a claim that “ the only way they can take this election away from us is if it ’ s a rigged election , ” and an admonition to his camp followers : “ Don ’ t let them take it away from you.
” While the Democrats featured every one of their party ’ s living former presidents—Jimmy Carter , Bill Clinton , and Barack Obama—the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ W. Bush , has no place on the Republican convention speaker list .
Why ?
Because Bushes can ’ t be counted on to sing Trump ’ s praises—in person , or virtually .
The same goes for 2012 Republican presidential nominee and US Senator from Utah Mitt Romney , who has not been forgiven for voting to remove Trump from office during last winter ’ s impeachment process .
The roll call of delegations at Monday ’ s scaled-down Republican convention in Charlotte , N.C. , where 336 delegates ( out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ semi-bubble , ” gave new meaning to the term “ idolatry.
” Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced his delegation ’ s unanimous consent to the president ’ s renomination by declaring Trump to be “ the only hope that every American in this country has for true liberty and true freedom and true opportunity.
” In case anyone missed the point , Patrick concluded by shouting , “ God bless you , Mr. President.
” The verbal hagiography got so fevered that the chair forgot to call on the “ Equality State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When the hero-worshipping was complete , it was announced that Trump had won 2,550 votes , and then everyone applauded .
Convention organizers gave no explanation for how former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld , who won 450,000 votes from states across the country for his primary challenge to Trump , was not afforded the delegate vote he won in Iowa .
For those following at home : Party rules require that candidates win a plurality of the delegates in at least five states in order to be nominated .
Weld won 9 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Massachusetts , and Nebraska ; 10 percent in Vermont ; and 13 percent in Maryland .
That didn ’ t cut it ; Weld wasn ’ t nominated , and his name was written out of the history of the 2020 Republican National Convention convention .
Unfortunately for Trump , it ’ s easier for him to manage a pliant Republican Party than it will be for him to manage the electorate heading toward a November election in which the polls suggest he is trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden .
And unfortunately for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t have a platform to stand on .

The betrayal of the Republican Party began long ago, as party leaders compromised away the last of the basic premises on which it was founded.
But the final abandonment comes this week, with the gathering of partisans to end the party as anything more than a cult of personality.
Heading into the Republican National Convention that began on Monday, President Trump’s praetorian guard decreed that it would not present a fresh platform to voters in the 2020 election. Instead, it greeted the convention with a one-page statement that concluded:
RESOLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention will adjourn without adopting a new platform until the 2024 Republican National Convention; RESOLVED, That the 2020 Republican National Convention calls on the media to engage in accurate and unbiased reporting, especially as it relates to the strong support of the RNC for President Trump and his Administration; and RESOLVED, That any motion to amend the 2016 Platform or to adopt a new platform, including any motion to suspend the procedures that will allow doing so, will be ruled out of order.
Platforms are the defining documents of political parties, and Republicans have historically taken their statements very seriously. The platform drafting sessions of the 1960s and ’70s were pitched battles between mainstream Republicans, who took their cues from former president Dwight Eisenhower and governors such as Michigan’s George W. Romney, and the surging right-wing forces of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater and California Governor Ronald Reagan. The conservatives won, yet even Goldwater and Reagan—and any of the various George Bushes—respected the importance of platform debates. So, too, did thousands of Republicans who engaged in them on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
No more. Now the party that once presented its platform as “our call to service, our pledge of leadership, our proposal of measures in the public interest” says there is no need to explain where it stands on the issues because “the RNC, had the Platform Committee been able to convene in 2020, would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration.”
So, you know, never mind. Right?
Wrong. Americans like to imagine that their political parties stand for something more than servile complaisance to a washed-up reality-TV star. So Republicans are sensitive to the suggestion that the failure to adopt a new platform suggests that the party is so under Trump’s thumb that it can’t entertain a discussion that is not scripted by the president and his minions. The platform-replacement resolution that it released over the weekend was laced with griping about media reports on the platform process that wasn’t. “The media,” it complained, “has outrageously misrepresented the implications of the RNC not adopting a new platform in 2020 and continues to engage in misleading advocacy for the failed policies of the Obama-Biden Administration, rather than providing the public with unbiased reporting of facts.”
But an unbiased reporting of the facts confirms that, even as the president continues to portray Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” Biden and the Democrats pulled together a 92-page platform that featured 2,629 words on “Protecting Americans and Recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic”—a subject of some interest to 2020 voters. The Democratic document—while too cautious on a number of issues, including Medicare for All, legalization of marijuana, and ending qualified immunity for police officers—is a lively statement that is very much of the moment and that reflects the movement of the Democratic Party toward more progressive responses on the climate crisis, job creation, and immigration reform.
While the Democratic platform announced last week that “Americans believe that diversity is our greatest strength,” the Republicans are announcing this week that Donald John Trump is their only strength. No dissenters from the one true faith allowed. Current Issue View our current issue
Unlike last week’s Democratic convention, which featured Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders—the runner-up in an actual contest for the nomination of an actual party—and several other maverick voices, the Republican speaking schedule for this week’s convention consists of Trump family members, like screaming Donald Trump Jr.; Trump family hangers-on, like screaming Kimberly Guilfoyle; Trump congressional allies, like screaming Matt Gaetz; and Trump-friendly “everyday Americans,” like Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis homeowners who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in June. And, of course, on the first night, and the second night, and the third night, and the fourth night, the elder Trump himself. On Monday, Trump flew into North Carolina during the day and then beamed into the virtual convention with a prime-time hanging-around-the-White-House video chat with folks who told the president just how very much in awe they are of… the president. Trump got the first word and the last word, and plenty of words in between. Most of them were ominous, including a claim that “the only way they can take this election away from us is if it’s a rigged election,” and an admonition to his camp followers: “Don’t let them take it away from you.”
While the Democrats featured every one of their party’s living former presidents—Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama—the only living former Republican president, George W. Bush, has no place on the Republican convention speaker list. Why? Because Bushes can’t be counted on to sing Trump’s praises—in person, or virtually. The same goes for 2012 Republican presidential nominee and US Senator from Utah Mitt Romney, who has not been forgiven for voting to remove Trump from office during last winter’s impeachment process.
The roll call of delegations at Monday’s scaled-down Republican convention in Charlotte, N.C., where 336 delegates (out of 2,550) gathered in a partisan “semi-bubble,” gave new meaning to the term “idolatry.” Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick announced his delegation’s unanimous consent to the president’s renomination by declaring Trump to be “the only hope that every American in this country has for true liberty and true freedom and true opportunity.” In case anyone missed the point, Patrick concluded by shouting, “God bless you, Mr. President.” 2020 RNC The Desperation of Donald Trump Jr. Jeet Heer
The verbal hagiography got so fevered that the chair forgot to call on the “Equality State”—“Sorry, Wyoming.” When the hero-worshipping was complete, it was announced that Trump had won 2,550 votes, and then everyone applauded.
Convention organizers gave no explanation for how former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld, who won 450,000 votes from states across the country for his primary challenge to Trump, was not afforded the delegate vote he won in Iowa. For those following at home: Party rules require that candidates win a plurality of the delegates in at least five states in order to be nominated. Weld won 9 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Nebraska; 10 percent in Vermont; and 13 percent in Maryland. That didn’t cut it; Weld wasn’t nominated, and his name was written out of the history of the 2020 Republican National Convention convention.
Unfortunately for Trump, it’s easier for him to manage a pliant Republican Party than it will be for him to manage the electorate heading toward a November election in which the polls suggest he is trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
And unfortunately for the Republican Party, it doesn’t have a platform to stand on.


thenation--2020-08-25--The Desperation of Donald Trump Jr.

The Desperation of Donald Trump Jr.

Cocaine and Donald Trump Jr. started trending at the same time on Twitter on Monday night .
This was a direct result of liberals ’ freely and without facts theorizing about the president ’ s eldest son .
These speculations are not just baseless but also unfair .
There are far more human reasons for Trump Jr. ’ s odd performance during the speech he gave at the RNC .
If you simply examine the text , the speech itself is perfunctory .
It ’ s a hard-right statement of the case for Donald Trump ’ s reelection , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the family member who works hardest to enthuse the conservative base .
His sister Ivanka , by contrast , is much more an emissary to the larger world and tries to put a moderate spin on Trumpism .
“ If Democrats really wanted to help minorities and underserved communities , instead of bowing to big money union bosses , they ’ d let parents choose what school is best for their kids .
They ’ d limit immigration to protect American workers .
They ’ d support the police who protect our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to negotiate trade deals that prioritize America ’ s interest for a change .
They ’ d end the endless wars and quit sending our young people to solve problems in foreign lands .
They ’ d cut taxes for families and workers .
They ’ d create opportunity zones that drive investment into inner cities .
In other words , if Democrats cared for the forgotten men and women of our country , they ’ d do exactly what President Trump is doing .
America is the greatest country on earth , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revolves around the idea that we can always do even better .
Imagine the life you want to have , one with a great job , a beautiful home , a perfect family.
” Obama ’ s High-Minded Civics Lesson Asks Too Much of Us It ’ s only in the last sentence that Trump Jr. sounds a bit off , as if he were a radio station that suddenly shifted from Rush Limbaugh to Talking Heads .
( “ And you may find yourself in a beautiful house / With a beautiful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , well / How did I get here ?
” ) What ’ s odd about the speech is Trump Jr. ’ s mannerisms , the wild , distant glaze in his eyes , his strange puppet-like hand gestures , the too-fast racing through the words .
The most likely explanation is existential dread .
Trump Jr. has never been comfortable in public life ; he ’ s always tried to mimic his father ( a more successful public speaker ) .
Trump Jr. has always seemed more like a lost puppy than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never at ease with the world but anxiously trying to spy out the situation .
Added to this natural discomfort are his likely worries about his fate if his father loses .
More than any of the other Trump progeny , Trump Jr. was implicated in Russiagate .
As The New York Times reports : “ Don ’ s the only person who thinks they ’ re going to lose , ” says a prominent conservative activist who is in regular contact with him and other key members of Trump ’ s political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ‘ We ’ re losing , dude , and we ’ re going to get really hurt when we lose.
’ ” An electoral defeat in November , Trump Jr. fears , could result in federal prosecutions of Trump , his family and his political allies .
He has told the conservative activist that he expects that a Biden administration will not participate in a “ peaceful transition ” and instead will “ shoot the prisoners.
” We don ’ t need cocaine to explain Trump Jr. ’ s speech patterns .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ his life .

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Cocaine and Donald Trump Jr. started trending at the same time on Twitter on Monday night. This was a direct result of liberals’ freely and without facts theorizing about the president’s eldest son. These speculations are not just baseless but also unfair. There are far more human reasons for Trump Jr.’s odd performance during the speech he gave at the RNC.
If you simply examine the text, the speech itself is perfunctory. It’s a hard-right statement of the case for Donald Trump’s reelection, in keeping with Trump Jr.’s role as the family member who works hardest to enthuse the conservative base. His sister Ivanka, by contrast, is much more an emissary to the larger world and tries to put a moderate spin on Trumpism.
Here’s a not uncharacteristic specimen from Junior’s speech:
“If Democrats really wanted to help minorities and underserved communities, instead of bowing to big money union bosses, they’d let parents choose what school is best for their kids. They’d limit immigration to protect American workers. They’d support the police who protect our neighborhoods. They’d learn how to negotiate trade deals that prioritize America’s interest for a change. They’d end the endless wars and quit sending our young people to solve problems in foreign lands. They’d cut taxes for families and workers. They’d create opportunity zones that drive investment into inner cities. In other words, if Democrats cared for the forgotten men and women of our country, they’d do exactly what President Trump is doing. America is the greatest country on earth, but my father’s entire worldview revolves around the idea that we can always do even better. Imagine the life you want to have, one with a great job, a beautiful home, a perfect family.” More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
It’s only in the last sentence that Trump Jr. sounds a bit off, as if he were a radio station that suddenly shifted from Rush Limbaugh to Talking Heads. (“And you may find yourself in a beautiful house / With a beautiful wife / And you may ask yourself, well / How did I get here?”)
What’s odd about the speech is Trump Jr.’s mannerisms, the wild, distant glaze in his eyes, his strange puppet-like hand gestures, the too-fast racing through the words.
The most likely explanation is existential dread. Trump Jr. has never been comfortable in public life; he’s always tried to mimic his father (a more successful public speaker). Trump Jr. has always seemed more like a lost puppy than a grown man, someone who is never at ease with the world but anxiously trying to spy out the situation. Added to this natural discomfort are his likely worries about his fate if his father loses.
More than any of the other Trump progeny, Trump Jr. was implicated in Russiagate. As The New York Times reports:
“Don’s the only person who thinks they’re going to lose,” says a prominent conservative activist who is in regular contact with him and other key members of Trump’s political operation. “He’s like, ‘We’re losing, dude, and we’re going to get really hurt when we lose.’” An electoral defeat in November, Trump Jr. fears, could result in federal prosecutions of Trump, his family and his political allies. He has told the conservative activist that he expects that a Biden administration will not participate in a “peaceful transition” and instead will “shoot the prisoners.”
We don’t need cocaine to explain Trump Jr.’s speech patterns. There are reasons more firmly rooted in his life.


thenation--2020-08-27--America’s Holy War Comes to the RNC

America’s Holy War Comes to the RNC

On Wednesday night , former football Coach Lou Holtz spoke at the Republican National Convention and questioned Joe Biden ’ s faith .
“ The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history , ” Holtz said .
“ They and other politicians are Catholics in name only and abandon innocent lives .
President Trump protects those lives.
” Joe Biden responded by saying , “ I ’ m a practicing Catholic .
I don ’ t proselytize about it.
” He added , “ I never miss Mass .
It ’ s who I am.
” In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is more open about his religious faith than any Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter , who famously defined himself as a born-again Christian .
Biden , if elected , would be only the second Catholic ever to be president .
His Catholicism was repeatedly emphasized at the Democratic convention , especially by a leading surrogate , Delaware Senator Chris Coons .
The RNC ’ s Pitch to Black America Is Not Just Ridiculous—It ’ s Sick “ People , Joe believes , were made in the image of God .
Joe learned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and priests right here in Delaware , who taught him and inspired in him a passion for justice , ” said Coons .
“ Joe ’ s faith is really about our future , about a world with less suffering and more justice , where we ’ re better stewards of creation , where we have a more just immigration policy and where we call out and confront the original sins of this nation , the sins of slavery and racism .
Joe knows these are central issues in this election .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in faith.
” Religion is a central fault line in American politics .
Biden and Coons are articulating a version of liberal Christianity where faith is defined by private worship and actions to ameliorate the world .
This stands in contrast to the conservative Christianity of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence .
The Trump/Pence version of Christianity is a fusion of religion with reactionary nationalism , where faith is defined by protecting a traditional way of life against foes both domestic and foreign .
This way of life can be defined in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1950s America , with the need to maintain rigid racial and gender hierarchies .
This explains the importance Trump-supporting Christians give to issues like abortion , immigration ( threatening because it changes the racial demography of America ) , and LGBT rights .
In his speech at the RNC on Wednesday night , Mike Pence said , “ Let ’ s run the race marked out for us .
Let ’ s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents .
Let ’ s fix our eyes on this land of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And let ’ s fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and freedom and never forget that where the spirit of the Lord is , there is freedom—and that means freedom always wins.
” As The Washington Post reports , Pence ’ s words were a reworking of two Bible verses ( 2 Corinthians 3:17 and Hebrews 12:1-2 ) but with “ Old Glory ” replacing “ Jesus.
” Pence is in effect defining American nationalism as holy , the literal equivalent of God .
Some Christians find this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an affront to their faith .
Greg Jao , senior assistant to the president of InterVarsity , a leading campus religious organization , tweeted , “ Glad Pence seems to know Scripture ; grieved & appalled he ’ d believe substituting ‘ Old Glory ’ for ‘ Jesus ’ wasn ’ t blasphemous and equating the freedom Paul was referring to with civil liberties.
” Because the faith Trump and Pence are selling is religious nationalism , Christian Republicans can easily reconcile themselves to supporting Donald Trump despite the fact that he is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For Christian nationalists , religion isn ’ t a matter of going to church , having a decent personal life , or even working to make the world a better place .
Faith , in this version of Christianity , is about keeping the nation powerful by buttressing traditional hierarchies .
Trump fulfills the need for a nationalist strongman .
We Need to Talk About the GOP ’ s ‘ Black Friends ’ Integral to nationalism is an ideal of rugged masculinity that Kristin Kobes Du Mez , a historian who teaches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hollywood movies in her book Jesus and John Wayne .
Speaking on NPR , Du Mez noted of the Wayne character that whether he is “ on the frontiers of the Wild West or in the Second World War or on the battlefields of Vietnam , he can bring order through violence .
And he can defend Christian America , really , and that ’ s what really appeals to many evangelicals , how he becomes this icon—and not just to evangelicals but to secular conservatives as well.
” There are tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christian at all .
But Christianity remains the majority religion , so the two parties are offering starkly different versions of the faith .
Biden is the avatar of a Christianity of good works , Trump of a Christianity of violence unleashed against all perceived enemies .
Many of Trump ’ s supporters see his victory in 2020 as providential .
But if Trump loses this year , it ’ s unlikely that they ’ ll think God didn ’ t want Trump ’ s reelection .
Rather , they are likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @

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On Wednesday night, former football Coach Lou Holtz spoke at the Republican National Convention and questioned Joe Biden’s faith. “The Biden-Harris ticket is the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history,” Holtz said. “They and other politicians are Catholics in name only and abandon innocent lives. President Trump protects those lives.”
Joe Biden responded by saying, “I’m a practicing Catholic. I don’t proselytize about it.” He added, “I never miss Mass. It’s who I am.”
In truth, although no proselytizer, Biden is more open about his religious faith than any Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter, who famously defined himself as a born-again Christian.
Biden, if elected, would be only the second Catholic ever to be president. His Catholicism was repeatedly emphasized at the Democratic convention, especially by a leading surrogate, Delaware Senator Chris Coons. More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
“People, Joe believes, were made in the image of God. Joe learned that from his parents and the nuns and priests right here in Delaware, who taught him and inspired in him a passion for justice,” said Coons. “Joe’s faith is really about our future, about a world with less suffering and more justice, where we’re better stewards of creation, where we have a more just immigration policy and where we call out and confront the original sins of this nation, the sins of slavery and racism. Joe knows these are central issues in this election. And for him, they’re rooted in faith.”
Religion is a central fault line in American politics. Biden and Coons are articulating a version of liberal Christianity where faith is defined by private worship and actions to ameliorate the world. This stands in contrast to the conservative Christianity of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The Trump/Pence version of Christianity is a fusion of religion with reactionary nationalism, where faith is defined by protecting a traditional way of life against foes both domestic and foreign. This way of life can be defined in simple shorthand as a nostalgic idealization of 1950s America, with the need to maintain rigid racial and gender hierarchies. This explains the importance Trump-supporting Christians give to issues like abortion, immigration (threatening because it changes the racial demography of America), and LGBT rights. Current Issue View our current issue
In his speech at the RNC on Wednesday night, Mike Pence said, “Let’s run the race marked out for us. Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let’s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire. And let’s fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and freedom and never forget that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom—and that means freedom always wins.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
As The Washington Post reports, Pence’s words were a reworking of two Bible verses (2 Corinthians 3:17 and Hebrews 12:1-2) but with “Old Glory” replacing “Jesus.”
Pence is in effect defining American nationalism as holy, the literal equivalent of God. Some Christians find this equation of nation with divinity to be an affront to their faith. Greg Jao, senior assistant to the president of InterVarsity, a leading campus religious organization, tweeted, “Glad Pence seems to know Scripture; grieved & appalled he’d believe substituting ‘Old Glory’ for ‘Jesus’ wasn’t blasphemous and equating the freedom Paul was referring to with civil liberties.”
Because the faith Trump and Pence are selling is religious nationalism, Christian Republicans can easily reconcile themselves to supporting Donald Trump despite the fact that he is clearly a biblical illiterate and profane libertine. For Christian nationalists, religion isn’t a matter of going to church, having a decent personal life, or even working to make the world a better place. Faith, in this version of Christianity, is about keeping the nation powerful by buttressing traditional hierarchies. Trump fulfills the need for a nationalist strongman. 2020 RNC We Need to Talk About the GOP’s ‘Black Friends’ Elie Mystal
Integral to nationalism is an ideal of rugged masculinity that Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a historian who teaches at Calvin University, connects to classic Hollywood movies in her book Jesus and John Wayne. Speaking on NPR, Du Mez noted of the Wayne character that whether he is “on the frontiers of the Wild West or in the Second World War or on the battlefields of Vietnam, he can bring order through violence. And he can defend Christian America, really, and that’s what really appeals to many evangelicals, how he becomes this icon—and not just to evangelicals but to secular conservatives as well.”
There are tens of millions of Americans who aren’t Christian at all. But Christianity remains the majority religion, so the two parties are offering starkly different versions of the faith. Biden is the avatar of a Christianity of good works, Trump of a Christianity of violence unleashed against all perceived enemies.
Many of Trump’s supporters see his victory in 2020 as providential. But if Trump loses this year, it’s unlikely that they’ll think God didn’t want Trump’s reelection. Rather, they are likely to redouble their holy war against liberalism.