Unions, or David Duke?

Two basic paths for American politics.

Median Republican. (Photo: Getty)

The daily onslaught of outrage porn that characterizes the Trump era can cause us to become unmoored from our memory of what “mainstream” meant in the very recent past. Every so often you need to level-set. The best way to do this is to compare something now to its status just a few years back, like making a mark on a door frame where the floodwater was. Then you can gape in horror as the mark is swallowed up the next time you check back.

The Louisiana Republican Senate primary is a useful tool of this type. There, the incumbent Bill Cassidy is facing a close challenge from House member Julia Letlow. Cassidy, a doctor, earned a reputation in recent years as one of the less crazy Republican Senators. He was one of only three to vote to impeach Trump after January 6. Also, he’s a doctor, which would tend to make you think that he believes in science, though that did not stop him from twisting himself into a position that allowed him to vote to confirm RFK Jr.

Trump, in search of revenge, has endorsed Letlow. Polls are close. But now, Letlow, the MAGA candidate, has a problem: oppo researchers uncovered a 2020 video showing Letlow endorsing the concept of DEI when she was interviewing to become president of the University of Louisiana Monroe. She said at the time that she would want “a person around the table that is cognizant and fighting for diversity, equity and inclusion.” And, when she was serving in a comms role at the university, she “signed a statement embracing diversity as one of UL Monroe’s ‘core values’ shortly after the death of George Floyd.”

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The year 2020—not so long ago! But look how far we’ve come. It is almost possible to experience glee watching the incredible contortions that these two fine Republicans are now throwing themselves into. Bill Cassidy, the sober, upright doctor, the man brave enough back then to impeach Trump, is now releasing statements that say “While Liberal Letlow was pushing DEI policies at ULM, calling herself a ‘strong and progressive leader,’ Senator Cassidy was working with President Trump and others to secure billions of dollars for the state and bring conservative policies to Louisiana.” Julia Letlow, a university executive, shoots back that Cassidy “helped write the infrastructure bill that had DEI initiatives hidden throughout it. I would make sure we continue to get it out of our schools.”

She also vows to stop making parents vaccinate their children for anything, while Cassidy, burdened by his medical credentials, must settle for acknowledging that vaccines are real, while voting for a guy who doesn’t.

The medical doctor is pointing his finger and screeching “woke!” at his opponent, the university administrator, for once saying that diversity in the workplace might be desirable. The university administrator, in turn, is proclaiming that she actually “stood with President Trump as he dismantled this ideology.” (The ideology in question is “racism is bad.”)

It is impossible not to marvel at the utter moral depravity of two highly credentialed and educated professionals desperately debasing themselves in order to compete for the David Duke vote. Truly, both of these people exhibit the ethics of toadying prison guards trying to impress their bullying boss with their capacity for abusing those under their care. A total absence of any standards that might prevent them from doing any grotesque act that might gain them an advantage in their horrifying careers. A case study in how not to live. A sad example for children of the depths that adults can sink to when they do not take to heart the lessons that we are all taught in kindergarten.

It is scarier still to reflect on the fact that this dynamic—not just a race to the right, but a competition to signal the most gutter bigotry and willingness to lick the boots of the dear leader—now characterizes every single Republican race in national American politics. There is nothing in the party except for this. All other dynamics have been purged. Anyone unwilling to participate in this cruel charade has retired or is about to. This is it now. In order to be allowed entry into national elected office as a Republican, you must be willing to say “I value diversity” when that is politically expedient and then be willing to rapidly shift all the way down the spectrum to “Let’s bring back Jim Crow” if that becomes the agreed upon position of the party’s leaders. That is the sort of person you must be. Republican primaries may offer a choice of candidates, but all of the candidates will be that sort of person.

Julia Letlow, champion of equity.

The murder of George Floyd, the mass uprisings that followed, and the subsequent elite backlash to that short era of change are the dominoes that fell to get us to where we are in American politics right now. Those were the biggest protests in American history. What happened to all of that appetite for change? Electorally speaking, it was placed on the shoulders of the Democratic Party, a party whose leadership could not wait to dump that burden in the trash as quickly as possible. It didn’t take long for Joe Biden to whiplash back to “The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police,” as all of his colleagues applauded. “DEI” itself was the sanitized corporate version of civil rights, of equality; it inspired no real passion in the first place, and when the Republicans used it as their racist Trojan Horse of choice in the next election cycle, there were few Democrats willing to make it their cause. The struggle against racism was passionate in the street; its passion was cut in half in the packaging of DEI; that weak half was entrusted to PR staffers like, well, Julia Letlow; and after they allowed any remaining passion to deflate, DEI was recreated by racists as a scarecrow meant to frighten off any future attempts to fight for equality. The Democratic leadership, which saw the Black Lives Matter movement as an electorally dangerous ally that just needed to be momentarily appeased, acquiesced to the transformation of “DEI” into the latest iteration of “busing” or “Sister Souljah” or other racist-tinged code word.

And here we are. One bitter lesson to be learned from the past five years is that it is a strategic mistake to allow demands for material change to be soaked up by the soft sponge of corporate and political promises. Every movement for racial and economic equality in American history has sparked a vicious backlash. We know it will come. We must build a stronger backstop against it than “Chuck Schumer and Roger Goodell’s personal commitment to justice.” So where can we direct our efforts, if not at politicians and corporate PR offices?

Try this: union contracts. Union contracts. Organize a union, and get a contract. In that contract, put all of the nice promises that the company is mouthing about DEI. Once they are in the contract, they are no longer promises. They are assurances. Though many people vaguely understand that unions are important for economic equality, few think of unions as being on the front lines of these fights. That’s a missed opportunity. Everything that “DEI” claimed to be about, union contracts actually accomplish. Research shows that a union in the workplace closes racial wealth and pay gaps, raises the pay of women, and reduces discrimination in hiring, firing, and promotion. Unions do it! Measurably! Enforceably! No bullshit!

Instead of applying pressure in order to extract empty promises from Julia Letlow and “END RACISM” painted in NFL end zones, we can apply the same pressure to form unions and win contracts. Those contracts will then deliver tangible gains that will not disappear within 18 months, as soon as the political winds shift. They will not disappear, because they are in contracts. Nor will the unions themselves disappear. They are tools of power, and they will still be there, when we get a racist president, and a monstrous racist political movement that totally takes over one of our two major political parties and befuddles the half-assed other ones. When that happens, we will still have our unions, and our unions will still have power, and they can lead, and the half-assed politicians can follow. The targets of our movements are good ones. But we can think differently about how to get there. Let’s try more unions next time around. The state of American politics today is the best argument in their favor.

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Also

• Related reading: More DEI! Louder!; The Consequences of Rejecting “Defund the Police”; Do What You Believe In.

• Today in shouting out a strike: More than 1,300 union members at Olin Winchester in Kansas City, MO are on strike right now. See here for info on how to support them. Winning strikes is good for everyone.

• I wrote a book about the labor movement and how it can change America in the ways discussed here. It’s called “The Hammer,” and you can buy it wherever books are sold. Also, as spring approaches, you can order a “How Things Work” t-shirt that looks great, to wear in the sunshine. You can also make a donation to our reporting fund. But the best thing you can do—the thing that makes the gods of independent media most happy—is to become a paid subscriber, to keep this publication going in 2026 and beyond. Your support keeps this place alive and keeps it free for everyone to read, regardless of income. It’s affordable and good karma. Thanks for reading.