Summary

Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign failed to connect with low-income workers due to a perceived lack of listening, according to AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US.

While union members largely supported Harris, many low-income voters backed Trump, swayed by his messaging on economic insecurity.

Despite Biden’s pro-labor policies, including infrastructure investments, the AFL-CIO now faces challenges under a likely Trump presidency.

AFL-CIO emphasized labor unions’ resilience and commitment to fighting rollbacks while advancing organizing efforts.

With public approval for unions at a near 60-year high, the labor movement plans both defensive and offensive strategies to protect workers.

  • Yondoza@sh.itjust.works
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    11 days ago

    The campaign connected just fine with the college educated working class. It didn’t connect with the highschool or less education working class. IMO it seems the big party divide today is higher education.

    Working class should refer to people whose income is primarily derived from selling their labor vs the value of their assets.

    We need to start using the term working class correctly.

    • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 days ago

      certainly didn’t connect with me and my social circle and we’re all college educated working class. maybe you’re confusing people who voted for her as people who thought she was worth voting for?

      • Yondoza@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        I know what you’re getting at, but people who voted for her are by definition people who thought she was worth voting for. When all is said and done, that is the metric that mattered.

        If you voted for Harris this past election cycle her campaign either spent the right amount or too much time catering to you… From a game theory perspective.

        • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 days ago

          No, not by definition. There are many reasons to cast a vote not all votes are because the person is worth voting for.

          For example i voted for Biden and he wasnt worth the time it took to roll out of bed that morning.

          As for harris well, I dont support genocidal monsters who throw minorities under the bus to appease mega donors. Also why i was loathe to vote biden the first time around.

  • Natanael@slrpnk.net
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    11 days ago

    “we have a concrete plan for helping you” - crickets

    “my plans will hurt you but I’m pretending otherwise” - “what a brilliant businessman!”

    • TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      That’s not the message working people heard. They heard, “we are the establishment whose theories have been fucking you over for fifty years, but in our infinite wisdom and benevolence we have decided to make some changes that WE have determined will make your lives better, and so you must vote for us. After all, we are your intellectual superiors.”

      • Narwhalrus@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        Yes. Incredibly theoretical, difficult to understand, highly abstract plans like “raising the national minimum wage”.

        • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 days ago

          Wrong plans, they’re referring to the joke ‘50k small business loan with a bajillion strings attached’, ‘a maybe tax hike for the wealthy, but no transfer to middle/lower income’, ‘here are two tax credits half of which only impact parents and together dont break even on inflation’, ‘absolute refusal to commit to keeping khan’, in short dems to working Americans: fuck you, and here’s some genocide on top. Vote for us because we think we’re the only option.

    • RagingNerdoholic@lemmy.ca
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      11 days ago

      Did she, though? All I remember is something about a “new small business” subsidy fund, which is… good, I suppose, but didn’t address any of the probkems the average American is facing.

      Okay, there was also the suggestion of Medicare for all, which would put a dent in things, but I only heard it casually mentioned once and it sounded like something she was “open to discussing,” not a core part of her platform.

      Aside from that, there was nothing directly addressing the core daily problems the majority of people are experiencing, like overpriced living expenses and underpaid wages.

      • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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        11 days ago

        I hate to say it, but you have a point. While Kamala had lofty plans to do right by a lot of special interests, she ignored several important ones. What really killed her chances was that, for all of her promises, she had no plan to execute them with what would turn out to be a very hostile Congress.

        That, mixed with the delayed effects of both Trump’s and Biden’s influence, the dogshit-brained blamed Biden for Trump’s bullshit while crediting Trump with Obama’s achievements after Bush. And it’s gonna happen again when all of Biden’s work to improve the economy takes affect during the second of Trump term and everything Trump does wreck the economy so the next president after him will take the blame for it.

        Because most voters in this country, don’t understand that economic policy rarely takes affect in fewer than 2 to 4 years, but the dog shit inside their skull makes them blame whomever is president at the moment, regardless of their actual capability.

        • SaltySalamander@fedia.io
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          11 days ago

          Because the media they consume have told them it’s the fault of the current president, and they’re too simple to do any thinking for themselves.

          • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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            11 days ago

            some of us know that the Democrats and Republicans are at fault because it is us that are directly dealing with fallout from both parties

            just wait until the shit that hit the fan finally makes it onto you sitting further out

            and no not all of us had the option to get a backrow seat further away from the fan

      • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 days ago

        The small business loan was a joke if you look at the details. First off most people dont want to start a business its a lot of hard fucking work with a lot of risk. It also had a bunch of means tests involved. Which would make it a disaster to implement and a disaster to get.

    • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      her plan involved helping people get a home loan with no plans to raise the minimum wage

      what did Harris say she was going to bring to table that would attract any voters other than high middle and above class?

      • jatone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 days ago

        That home loan was fucking worthless to boot. You know what would save Americans money? Directly building homes and selling them at cost.

  • Nougat@fedia.io
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    11 days ago

    You know what you call someone who votes for fascism? A fascist.

    How do you appeal to fascists without being more fascist than the alternative?

    America is comprised of stupider, shittier people than was thought.

    • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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      11 days ago

      When Democrats and Republicans work together to increase national fracking and oil production, protect polluting industries, not support living wages, gut education standards, not support universal healthcare, increase police funding it equals a stupider, shittier people that vote for the donor class puppets

  • ThrowawayOnLemmy@lemmy.world
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    11 days ago

    Trump told people they were struggling and only he could fix it.

    Kamala told people the economy was rebounding and they were gonna create more opportunities for the middle class.

    People didn’t give a shit about what opportunities they were given. They also didn’t give a shit about a rebounding economy because none of them were feeling things getting better. Media kept saying real wages beat inflation finally. Only after 3 years of insane inflation where wages in no way kept up.

    So sure, the economy is better than it was, and better than the rest of the world. But the shock happened and nothing was done to actually help the people that were suffering. Instead they were told by Democrats that ‘it could have been worse! And it will be worse under Trump’ basically admitting they weren’t really interested in helping.

    So Trump, despite him not actually caring or really planning to do anything about it, stayed on message with something that resonated to voters. While Kamala assumed people wanted to start businesses? People can’t afford food but sure, let’s talk about how they have some opportunity to open a mom and pop shop across from Walmart.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      11 days ago

      She literally said, “I will go after price gouging,” which is 100% the reason prices are so high, but instead, the media focused you on starting a business. The whole price gouging thing was absent from every news article. The only time you heard it was when she spoke live. Absolutely wild.