Londrigan: 'Beer and bluejeans party,' another GOP 'Orwellian twist'

By BERRY CRAIG

AFT Local 1360

Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan hadn't heard about the Trump reelection campaign braggingthat their guy had made the pinstripe-suited GOP "the beer and bluejeans party." 

He laughed when I told him.

"That's a joke. We all know the Republican Party is bought and paid for by the millionaires and corporate elite. That's a fact, and there is no way to dispute that. For them to imply that they are aligned with the interests of the people that work every day for a living is totally ridiculous."

Donald Trump still insists he's all in for working stiffs like us. Not even when hogs fly and kids quit shooting hoops in Kentucky.

He ran for president on a stock Wall Street Republican, union-busting platform coldly calculated to make rich folks like him richer at the expense of those of us who live a long way from Easy Street.

On the campaign trail, Trump said he liked "right to work" states better than non-RTW states. Trump bosses an administration that's anti-union from top to bottom. Click here, here and here.

Meanwhile, Trump is claiming credit for the new USMCA, which the House passed. But NPR's Don Gonyea wrote that Speaker Nancy Pelosi credits the AFL-CIO, not Trump, for what's in the multinational trade deal. For the first time, organized labor played a big role in negotiating the pact, she said.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the initial deal that the Trump administration wanted was no better than NAFTA, according to Gonyea. Trumka called it a "sham." 

Londrigan said the "beer and bluejeans" handle reminded him of "right to work," one of the oldest anti-union scams around. Both slogans are deliberate misnomers and an "Orwellian twist of words to confound and confuse people and try to make them believe something that really isn't true."

Londrigan said "beer and bluejeans," like RTW, is more right-wing blue smoke and mirrors. He recalled Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning against RTW:  

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote.”

Londrigan isn't alone in ridiculing the "beer and bluejeans" moniker. After New York Times scribes Annie Karni and Maggie Haberman wrote about it, Karni took to Twitter: "Republicans Are Now ‘the Beer and Bluejeans Party’ Because of Trump. So Says the Trump Campaign. https://nytimes.com/2019/12/12/us/politics/trump-2020-campaign.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share…" 

Responses suggested that Londrigan's far from alone in lampooning "beer and bluejeans party:" 

-- "It's all about messaging. Repeat the lie over and over and people will accept it as fact."

-- "I’m looking at one billionaire from Wharton [Trump] and another millionaire from Harvard [Jared Kushner] in that picture [with the Times article]. One doesn’t drink and I haven’t seen a picture of either in blue jeans. Stupid untruthful marketing."

-- "Super. Looking forward to the GOP raising the minimum wage for the beer and blue jeans crowd followed by helping them pay for college, reducing their taxes and getting them affordable healthcare. Now that would be a real beer and blue jeans party." 

-- "Could they be more phony and condescending to their base? Perhaps a bit, and probably will be."