Roosevelt wasn’t a fan of fawning. “It does not mean to stand by the president … It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”

I know I wasn’t alone in my anger when I saw the banner of Donald Trump unfurled on the face of the U.S. Department of Labor. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer encouraged fellow cabinet members to “see the president’s big, beautiful face on a banner,” celebrating him as the most “transformational president of the American worker, along with an American flag and President [Theodore] Roosevelt.” 

After I calmed down, I contemplated the sick brilliance of whichever White House propagandist(s) conceived this banner.  They know this president has: Gutted federal unions… Attacked the independence of the National Labor Relations Board… Fired the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the crime of telling the truth… Decimated the regulation of health and safety in the workplace… Reversed the prior administration’s granting of overtime to federal contractors and undermined the enforcement of laws protecting workers and the right to organize. But see, that’s not all these sycophants and manipulators know. They also know that 68% of Americans approve of unions, including 90% of Democrats, 69% of independents and 41% of Republicans.  And they know their “Big, Beautiful Bill” is unpopular even in some red regions because it will hurt millions of people the DOL is supposed to protect. So, the banner is really doing more than feeding one man’s narcissism. It’s a brazen, vulgar attempt to obliterate history. The very building it defiles was named in 1980 for Francis Perkins, the first woman to serve in a president’s cabinet. As FDR’s Secretary of Labor, Perkins helped implement Social Security, the first minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and many pieces of the New Deal. Francis Perkins was passionate about worker safety, having witnessed New York City’s 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, where employer neglect killed 146 workers. She also defended the rights of immigrant workers to be free from illegal apprehensions. What a contrast she was to the groveling current secretary! During my own first days in the labor movement, I saw aggressive, young staffers from DOL challenging Bethlehem Steel’s racially discriminatory seniority systems, implementing changes that ended up benefiting all workers, black and white. Today, this proud history is being reversed or, in the current secretary’s words, “transformed.”  I’m reminded of the words of Howard Zinn: “History is important. If you don’t know history, it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.”

Those of us who weren’t born yesterday, might also wonder how President Theodore Roosevelt would feel being paired with Trump on the wall of a building that was once charged with establishing a more level playing field between managers and workers. Roosevelt wasn’t a fan of fawning. He said, “Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president … It is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.” 

The struggle continues. Happy Labor Day, friends.

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Photos: Robert Gumpert