Jake Rosenfeld, associate professor of sociology in Arts & Sciences
The Democratic establishment’s abandonment of organized labor represents one of the most bewildering strategic moves by a major political party in generations. Many have written of the economic consequences of labor’s decline.
But the political consequences of the disassociation are far-reaching, ongoing, and grow direr every day as union memberships continue to disappear in formerly-Democratic strongholds.
The move cannot be explained as a necessary, if painful, step to shed an outdated and unpopular set of organizations. Unions’ popularity have declined alongside memberships, yet still 60% of the American public supports them.
The Democratic Party, meanwhile, is much less popular.
Read the full piece in On Labor.