Democrats Are Still Getting Rolled by Their Interest Groups

What the longshoremen strike tells us about a future Harris administration

I put forward such compelling arguments against Trump, that people often ask why I don’t just take the coconut pill. I’ll admit, that when you focus on aesthetics, character, or what candidates say, the Democratic ticket is clearly preferable. Trump’s most ardent supporters are even worse than he is, by quite a bit. Knowing I will be able to watch them suffer if he loses does not affect who I want to win, but gives me something to look forward to in the case of a Democratic victory.

Listening to Trump, it’s clear that the only coherent part of his worldview, other than his own victim narrative and vows of revenge, is that he dislikes immigration and trade. If you ask him why it’s raining, he’ll say because Kamala let in illegal immigrants and they shipped the jobs off to China. This is only a slight exaggeration – see how Trump responded to this question on childcare. Vance has an even more consistent monomaniacal focus on stirring up resentment and scapegoating foreigners as the root of all evil, except he’ll provide citations, which won’t be any good but impress everyone because they show an ability to search for keywords in Google Scholar.

That said, the recent strike by the International Longshoremen Association (ILA), now suspended until January, shows the shortcomings of a character and rhetoric focused approach to politics, rather than one that sees candidates primarily as representatives of wider coalitions.