It was a non-endorsement endorsement by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters tonight. Sean O’Brien proudly proclaimed he was the first president of the labor giant to formally address the Republican National Convention in its 121-year history. The address was an indefatigable screed in defense of America’s workers. It showed a changing of the guard both within the Republican Party, which had long loathed the Teamsters, and the union itself, as O’Brien said he didn’t care if your name has a D, an R, or an ‘I’ next to it—they want to know what you’re doing to help the American worker. 

O’Brien said that times are changing, and the Teamsters are willing to work with anyone to help the working class. He lamented how this nation has taken American workers for granted, though that changed during the pandemic when we saw how vital the industries where the Teamsters are most present are to our daily lives. 

The speech was soaked in the populist change the GOP has undergone since Trump, though its roots were in the Tea Party Movement. The GOP's base has become bluer in the collars they’re sporting, with most seeing a broken system stacked against those who aren’t corporate fat cats. O’Brien said that American workers aren’t stupid; they see a broken system that isn’t giving the little guy a chance.