2. A new kind of labor party. Initially this kind of change may sound strange, as we’re accustomed to viewing labor as a core Democratic concern. But unions, once the primary engine of Democratic labor support, have declined dramatically. The left is dominant in universities, big cities, and most elite professions, but Republicans have a commanding advantage with middle-class families and working men. For these groups, leftist activism is off-putting, but free enterprise is likewise losing some of its appeal. Job security is now a dominant concern, and protectionist policies are appealing to people who worry about losing their jobs.
A Republican labor party might prove disastrous for the economy. On the other hand, it could provide a fairly elevated political framework for the moral traditionalism that remains (now as ever) the right’s least-negotiable component. Christian labor parties were a staple of the newly-industrial West, and our now-eroding network of unions and labor rights owes much to their activity. Maybe it’s time for post-industrial traditionalists to devote themselves to similar questions, exploring the dignity of labor and posing strategies for protecting workers. Committed free-traders might then gravitate to the left, converting the Democrats into a Michael Bloomberg-style party of entrepreneurs and savvy professionals, whose philanthropic energies would be focused on the concerns of the truly destitute.
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