Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien is not happy with the Democratic Party, to say the least. He’s not happy with Democrats, and one suspects that he’s a little less than happy with his own rank-and-file members, who are supporting Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in the presidential contest by a nearly two-to-one margin. So, yes, he’s not a happy camper.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien issued a sharp condemnation of the Democratic Party in a recent interview, saying the party has itself to blame for losing support from the union’s rank-and-file members.
“I’m a Democrat, but they have f—ed us over for the last 40 years,” O’Brien said during a sit-down with Theo Von for the comedian’s “This Past Weekend” podcast. “And for once – and not all – but for once, we’re standing up as a union, probably the only one right now, saying, ‘what the f— have you done for us?’”
Well, at least Mr. O’Brien is finally — after supporting Democrats for a long, long time — beginning to see the light. The Teamsters, we should note, have endorsed Democratic presidential candidates for a long time, so, hey, Mr. O’Brien, way to be behind the curve. There’s an old saying in military circles, “If you don’t know where your people are, they’re probably ahead of you,” and that seems to be the case for the Teamsters rank-and-file and Sean O’Brien.
The Teamsters made waves this year by breaking with Democrats for the first time in decades by declining to endorse a presidential candidate for 2024, after the union’s internal polling showed its members favored Republican former President Donald Trump with 59.6% support over Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 34% support.
O’Brien acknowledged he is being “attacked from the left” over the decision, but he told Von that in the two-and-a-half years he has been president of the Teamsters, the union has given “the Democratic machine” $15.7 million and only given $340,000 to the GOP.
And:
🔥 Teamsters President Sean O’Brien & Theo Von Roast the Democratic Party
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m a Democrat but they have f*cked us over for the last 40 years…Since I’ve been in office 2.5 years, we’ve given the Democratic machine $15.7 million. We’ve given Republicans… pic.twitter.com/hVGkoCR8VE
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) October 8, 2024
I think I see the problem here. Let’s take this through in steps:
- Sean O’Brien identifies this problem with the… relationship between the Teamsters and the Democrats as having been detectable for at least 40 years. So, since Ronald Reagan was president.
- Sean O’Brien has been the president of the Teamsters for 2.5 years. So, 37.5 years after it became noticeable that the Democrats were “effing over” the Teamsters.
- Sean O’Brien has, for that same 2.5 years, given the Democrats $15.7 million while, in that same time window, giving $340,000 to the Republicans.
- Sean O’Brien has clearly seen that his members, by a large margin, favor Donald Trump (Republican) over Kamala Harris (Democrat.) And in that, among blue-collar workers, they have plenty of company.
See Related: Trump Surging Ahead in Philly – Has Harris Lost the Blue-Collar Vote?
The obvious solution would seem to be “stop giving the Democrats money.” They clearly are taking the Teamsters members for granted; based on Sean O’Brien’s rather… forthright assessment of that relationship, it would seem to be the right move to remind them of the Teamsters’ influence by donating elsewhere — or else just staying out of politics altogether, which seems unlikely for a big labor union. Or let your members, you know, the people whose money you are spending, decide where the union should best place those donations. That would, presumably, be with the Trump/Vance ticket, given the Teamsters’ internal polling.
See Related: Teamsters Members Overwhelmingly Voted to Endorse Trump, But Leadership Wimped Out
As America’s Songwriter reminds us, “The times, they are a’changing,” and the Teamsters union — or, at least, their president, Sean O’Brien — is going to have to change along with them. The Democrats aren’t the party of blue-collar workers anymore; the sooner the big unions assimilate that fact, the brighter the future of their members will be.
