Every four years, like clockwork, our two major parties serve up presidential candidates whose commitment to the cause of labor is more rhetorical than real.

This is most obviously true of conservative Republican courting of working-class voters. That venerable bait-and-switch routine reached its twenty-first-century apex in the form of Donald Trump’s successful faux-populist campaigns for the White House in 2016 and 2024. Postelection, his first and now second administration quickly displayed little interest in helping anyone other than Trump’s own billionaire-class supporters.

Democratic contenders for the White House tend to disappoint as well, under the influence of similar wealthy donors — despite their party’s pro-labor platform on paper, better overall track record, and partial reliance on union funding.