Can the G.O.P. Really Become the Party of Workers?

Economy|Can the G.O.P. Really Become the Party of Workers?

The astir astonishing infinitesimal of this year’s Republican National Convention whitethorn person travel connected its archetypal night, erstwhile the president of the Teamsters railed successful premier clip against firm elites and denounced a “war against labor” by concern groups. The gasps from immoderate successful the hallway were astir audible connected television.

But successful galore ways, it was a little-noted speech the week before, by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, that was much revealing astir the party’s evolving narration with organized labor.

If anything, Mr. Hawley, a rising Republican prima who is 1 of the Senate’s most blimpish members, seemed to outflank the Teamsters’ leader. His speech, delivered astatine the National Conservatism Conference, criticized Republicans who “cheerleaded for firm taxation cuts and debased barriers for firm trade, past watched these aforesaid corporations vessel American jobs overseas.” Mr. Hawley concluded that, “in the prime betwixt labour and capital,” his enactment indispensable “start prioritizing the workingman.”

What’s acold little communal is for a Republican to hold with that critique. “The caller Republican Party, the 1990s party, privileged the wealth assemblage successful conscionable astir each imaginable way,” Mr. Hawley said successful his speech.