Opinion | Republicans forgot about the working class and that was a mistake

The workers are pissed.

If you’re a Republican on this Labor Day and you’re wondering why you and your partymates are staring at polling showing all of you getting absolutely waxed in the midterm elections, that’s your answer.

For millions of workers, an honest day’s work is no longer paying the bills.

There’s only so far you can push proud people before they push back, and that’s what’s happening in America today. The scare tactics aren’t working. No one cares about the drag queens or the transgender athletes or the stupid rhetoric about “socialism.”

The simple fact is this: A working person in this country can do everything right, be responsible as hell, put in the effort and turn down the excess, and they can still barely survive.

I’m not talking about fast-food workers here either. (Although, for the life of me, I can’t understand the glee that so many people have in telling you that a person doing a necessary job that millions rely on every day shouldn’t be able to pay their basic bills by doing that job.)

I’m talking about people working factory jobs. Teachers. Bus drivers. Cops. Firefighters. They can’t make it work anymore. They’re doing the same work they’ve been doing, but for some reason, they’re all one car breakdown from bankruptcy. They’ve financed everything just to live. The last real vacation they took a year ago, they’re still paying off.

And it’s getting worse.

Gas is more. Groceries eat up a quarter of the paycheck. And they’re trying to decide between eating lunch this week or picking up the prescriptions at the pharmacy.

And don’t even talk about health insurance premiums, which are apparently going to nearly double over the next two years thanks to Trump and Republican policies.

That’s the reality facing much of America and a whole bunch of Alabama. Those folks who’ve been voting Republican for the last several years, who bought into the promises of lower taxes and leaner government and less intrusion into their lives, are realizing that they’ve been suckered.

Because nothing is trickling down. The intrusion is actually way worse. The government is much bigger and way more expensive. And all of it only seems to work for a handful of very rich, very powerful people at the top.

They’ve seen the bailouts to the banks while they lost their homes. They’ve seen the subsidies to oil companies while their health insurance subsidies were killed to make way for billionaire tax cuts. They’ve seen the backroom deals that benefit the billionaires while they’re told repeatedly that $7.25 is an acceptable minimum wage.

That’s why the scare tactics aren’t working anymore. Because nothing is scarier than the life most working folks are already living—the one where they’re teetering on a knife’s edge, living with constant anxiety and fearing that the next power bill is the one that pushes them over the edge.

And you think pointing out that this politician is Muslim and that one is a socialist is going to scare people? Those “scary socialists” are the only ones proposing ideas that seem as if anyone is listening to real people. For God’s sake, as that scary socialist Zohran Mamdani was giving New York City parents a city-sponsored, free night out (a godsend to millions), the guy in the White House was proposing changing the name of New Mexico and wants to give stay-at-home moms (who are mostly in wealthy families) more tax breaks.

They’re not the same.

In Alabama, it’s the Democrats making a difference. While Republicans have been running around putting the Ten Commandments in schools, protecting Confederate monuments, and trying to help rich people write off their private jets, Democrats have put forth plans to remove the tax on overtime pay, provide child care subsidies, expand Medicaid, bail out family farms, cut the tax on groceries and gas, and raise the minimum wage.

That’s why, in multiple polls that I’ve seen over the past three weeks, the numbers are truly unreal. In Madison County, for example, Trump is now way, way upside down in favorable/unfavorable—more than 20 points. Tommy Tuberville is worse. The Democrats actually have a chance to pick up both state Senate seats.

In the 2nd Congressional District, multiple polls show current U.S. Representative Shomari Figures, D-Alabama, beating Republican challenger Rhett Marques. And that’s in a district that was so illegally gerrymandered to get a favorable Republican electorate that even the current U.S. Supreme Court called it racist. In 2024, Trump would have won the district by 15 points.

In two separate statewide polls, Democrats are either leading or in a statistical tie in races up and down the ticket, including governor and lieutenant governor.

And here’s the thing that ought to really scare the hell out of Republicans: It’s getting worse.

With every poll, the Democratic candidates gain support. And the Republicans lose it. In addition, the polling has shown that voters—even those who identify as strongly conservative—don’t care about the main culture war talking points that Republicans have made the centerpieces of their campaign ads.

And, thank God, polling also shows not only major increases in union membership but also increased favorability among the general public for employee unions. That’s huge. Because very little has ever changed America more (for the better) than the efforts of organized labor.

It’s the reason you have a 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, paid holidays, sick leave, retirement benefits, and safety protections. They went to bat for equality in the workplace and equal treatment of employees. And when unions were king, the wage gap was about 5 percent of what it is today.

Pissed-off workers have a long history of changing America. And it sure looks like they’re about to do it again.

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