Don’t expect members of my profession to track down the story. We’re too busy listening to Donald Trump berate NATO, lie about his investments, revive the Red Scare and call Iranian leaders “scum,” while at the same time declaring we’ve defeated Iran in a war everyone believes we shouldn’t have started in the first place. (For those keeping track, Trump has claimed he has ended the conflict close to 40 times. I can’t count how often he’s “completely obliterated” the Islamic Republic’s military, even though they keep firing missiles and sending drones against us.)
The railroad workers’ strike really gave the game away as to whom the Democrats actually represent: Biden made some reasonable points about how a transportation shutdown would affect the economy and national security, which would’ve provided ample justification to nationalize the rails and use access to them as leverage. (With the side benefit of fixing most of Amtrak’s problems.) But there was no talk of the railroad companies feeling any of the pain. Protecting the economy was a burden that the workers had to shoulder alone.
And at that time, TikTok was still mostly free and open, and general public sentiment was firmly with the workers. Even with the traditional media not really giving a clear picture of the events, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and Millennials were all firmly with the workers. Biden had a softball, but he chose the rich.