It’s long been understood in American politics that unions support the Democrats. However, if you think about it, only public-sector unions have a vested interest in the Democrats. Private-sector unions have an interest in a strong economy, not a specific political party. That’s why it makes perfect sense that the Teamsters’ president, Sean O’Brien, will be speaking at the Republican National Convention (“RNC”).

Many people jumble all unions together when, in fact, there’s a stark difference between private-sector and public-sector unions. When it comes to private-sector unions, both parties at the table—management and the union—have a shared interest, which is to keep the business thriving and alive.

Economically speaking, the only real issue in a negotiation is intelligently dividing a business’s revenue between operations (including wages) and profits for shareholders. If either side gets too greedy, the business goes under. That means that, if they’re negotiating sanely, they won’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Image: Sean O’Brien by Ted Merriman. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Of course, they can make mistakes. For example, Detroit never realized the threat coming from Japan in terms of better car design, quality, and price. Neither unions nor management recognized that union demands, which seemed acceptable during Motown’s heyday, would prove unsustainable when serious foreign competition ran headlong into bloated American cars and wages.

Mostly, though, smart private-sector unions have enlightened self-interest. That’s one of the reasons that, at the height of the post-WWII Cold War, the big unions (i.e., the Teamsters and AFL-CIO) were ferociously anti-communist. The post-war boom meant that they were ascending the economic ladder, and they recognized that communism would only drag them down.

Things are very different with public-sector unions because the only party that’s not at the negotiating table is the goose laying those golden eggs—namely, the American taxpayer. Instead, negotiations are between those who grab the taxes and those who want a cut from those taxes. The latter, in turn, promise to give kickbacks, in the form of campaign donations, to the tax grabbers. It’s a cute deal that sees taxpayers foot the bill for public “servants” who are robbing their “employers” blind. The Democrats have a lock on the process, so federal employees support Democrats by a wide margin.

None other than Franklin Roosevelt, one of America’s early limousine leftists, recognized that public-sector unions are an abomination: “It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.” That didn’t stop individual states from having public-sector unions, but it wasn’t until John F. Kennedy’s Executive Order 10988 that this abomination was made a reality across America (allegedly as a kickback for union/mobster machinations that threw the 1960 election to JFK).

Because their wages are taxpayer-based, public-sector employees are immune to inflation. Private-sector employees are not, nor are they immune to free trade run amok. And it has run amok when China uses government funds to underwrite trade to destroy the American economy and increase its own power.

These facts mean that it makes perfect sense that, back in February, and for the first time in 20 years, the Teamsters donated $45,000 to the GOP. That wasn’t a huge sum; it was more in the way of running a flag up the pole and seeing whether members would tolerate it. They did, understanding that Trump’s first-term policies created a stronger economy and brought China to heel. By contrast, Biden’s economic, foreign, and border policies are breaking the backs of American businesses.

No wonder, then, that the Teamsters are becoming even more overt in their support for the Republican party, which is now the party of the American working and middle classes. The latest news is that the Teamsters’ president will speak at the RNC:

Former President Donald Trump boasted Friday that Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien has accepted his invitation to speak at next month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

It’s a big get for Trump, who is edging ahead of President Biden in polling with groups that have traditionally backed Democrats for decades, including union members.

One survey this year found Biden and Trump tied at 47% among union members in the six closest swing states Biden won in 2020, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Allegiances are shifting fast in 2024 America. If nothing else, Biden has exposed the fault lines that the progressive Democrats have been creating for the past sixty years. Many Democrats are waking up to realize that, as Reagan once said, they’re not leaving the Democrat party; the Democrat party has long since left them, spitting on their faces on its way out.