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President Joe Biden gained a rousing endorsement from the United Auto Employees union on Wednesday. Politically, it’s a large deal (or what Biden may name a “BFD”).
Talking at a UAW convention in Washington, union President Shawn Fain touted Biden’s pro-union bona fides. And he reminded his contributors that remaining 12 months, in the future after Biden made historical past through becoming a member of autoworkers at the wooden line, Donald Trump spoke at a nonunion auto portions plant and requested union leaders to again him.
I believe the previous week has highlighted the distinction Fain spoke of — and proven the place Trump’s and Biden’s loyalties lie.
In Trump’s case, that seems to be the industry magnificence — C-suite sorts who could have benefited from the rich-friendly tax cuts underneath Trump in 2017 and may see identical cuts will have to he go back to the White Area. My MSNBC colleague James Downie, for instance, wrote a piece highlighting remarks from one of the vital attendees on the ritzy Global Financial Discussion board conference in Davos, Switzerland. In spite of Trump’s open embody of a dictatorial imaginative and prescient, many of those billionaires appeared keen, open or — at minimal — apathetic to the theory of some other Trump time period.
And, as though to force the purpose house that he’s allied with the billionaire magnificence, Trump name-checked Steve Wynn and John Paulson, two debatable megadonors to his marketing campaign, in his victory speech after profitable the New Hampshire number one.
As David Corn, the Washington bureau leader for Mom Jones, wrote Wednesday:
[I]t was once telling that in the midst of this triumph the folk Trump seemed to care maximum about weren't marketing campaign aides who've toiled arduous to assist him reach his win or family members who've been at his facet. When he appeared into the target audience, his gaze fell upon two oligarchs—one an accused sexual assaulter; the opposite, a wheeler-dealer who cashed in on a deal that ended in one of the vital largest consequences in Wall Side road historical past. Those are Trump’s folks. That is his international. That is his crowd.
However, there’s Biden, who definitely has his proportion of rich backers, too — however doesn’t appear just about as beholden to them as Trump does. On the contrary, the president’s declare of being the “most pro-union president in American history” is reinforced now not handiest through his UAW endorsement, but in addition through the truth that he, as NBC Information famous, “has been endorsed by almost every other major union, including the AFL-CIO.” And despite the fact that you're feeling that Biden’s phraseology is slightly hyperbolic, you would need to admit, like John Nichols over at The Country, that he has been a staunch supporter of work as president.
So it sort of feels that November’s election will be offering two distinct visions for the presidency and whom it should serve: the rich and well-connected elites who personal and function primary firms, or the rank-and-file employees whose productiveness helps to keep those firms operating.