Jeffrey Gonzalez
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
I think you're absolutely right, Dylan, that what the fantasy does in some ways is it's to say that if we did X and Y right, then Americans could make good money again, rather than like, why can't Americans make good money now?
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
I really did too. Thanks so much. Yes, this was great. Thank you so much for having me.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
Thanks for having me too.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
So this comes up fairly commonly. And I think it's because Americans have this deeply mythological sense of what manufacturing labor is. And sometimes this work is dirty. It's hard. People get hurt. And that's really dropped out when politicians talk about manufacturing labor.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
What they're calling on is mostly this very masculinized sense of history that what manufacturing labor was was stable, steady work for men who could bring home a paycheck and take care of their families and were making real things with their hands. I think that the 25%...
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
may have bought into, or may just want a job that they think will have a good paycheck, but that the 55% who want it but don't want to do it might remember those elements, that this was hard work, that this was difficult work, and that maybe they don't see themselves in that mythological picture.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
And that's what I think is interesting about this nostalgic picture that some scholars have called smokestack nostalgia. We have this image of manufacturing work as this reliable form of good-paying labor that forgets that it was union activity that was what secured those. And it was often violent struggle, right, like in places like Bethlehem. that generated those good wages.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
And that what happened to those places, the northern factories where that union work happened, they were undercut by laws in the south that made manufacturing move south. It was so much harder to create a union. So the picture that we get with smokestack nostalgia is that these were good, solid jobs that people had for generations, when in fact, It was always precarious labor.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
Your factory could always up and move. And if you got hurt or if you got laid off, right, there wasn't the security that the mental picture that I think gets conjured by politicians gives us.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
And if I can bring up a cultural example, there's a 2010 movie called Company Men with Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones. And in that movie, you have basically this full-throated sense that manufacturing labor is like a driver of masculine virtue. The film takes place at this company that went from a manufacturing company to this big multinational that has an insurance arm. It has a finance arm.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
And what happens throughout the movie is that they all get this fantasy that they're going to like recreate the manufacturing arm of that company. They go to this hangar where they used to make ships. And Tommy Lee Jones has this long monologue where he says there were 6,000 men who made a good wage here every day and put their kids into college.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
Building something they could see, not just figures on a balance sheet, but a ship. They could see, smell, touch. Those men knew their worth. They knew who they were. And what's so crazy about this monologue is those kids were going to college to not work in that hangar.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
And again, like the emphasis is on men. And in that movie, the white collar characters who are resurrecting this manufacturing base, they don't ever do the manufacturing work. And there's not a single manufacturing labor in the movie. So in some ways, those characters seem to me like J.D.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
Vance and other people who are pushing this manufacturing idea, where it's in fact a white collar way of resurrecting your own masculinity.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
Yes. There's this sense that like pushing paper makes you feminine.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
Well, I think if we think back to the great Walt Whitman poem, I Hear America Singing, it's actually about work, right? It's about all these people kind of working and doing things and building things. And so I think that there's a sense that America likes to think of itself as full of hardworking people. And the factory was a place where you had to do hard work.
It's Been a Minute
The fantasy vs. reality of Trump's "smokestack nostalgia"
So I think in that way, too, it's kind of folded into American ideology.