Audi Hecht is the Director of Education and Innovation at Civic Spirit.
Labor Day provides one final chance to savor the expansive joys of summer. Established as a day to celebrate the contributions of American workers and trade unionists, it became a federal holiday in 1894 after securing homage in many states across the nation. When contemplating Labor Day's modern significance through a 21st-century lens, a multitude of avenues for exploration becomes apparent.
First and foremost, it's essential to understand the evolving landscape of work in America. The origins of Labor Day coincide with the introduction of the Omaha Platform in 1892. This platform proposed a comprehensive set of political and economic reforms in response to the extensive challenges emanating from rapid industrialization and urbanization, including injustices in labor practices and political corruption. The ideas put forth by the Populists during this time found fuller expression in the Progressive era, setting the stage for increased governmental oversight of industries and a profound shift in the national perspective regarding government intervention. This shift aimed to ensure that working conditions were no longer solely subject to the arbitrary choices of individual enterprises. Instead, it established benchmarks for fundamental working conditions, such as protective legislation for women, a ban on child labor, the creation of the Federal Department of Labor, and laws setting work hours and conditions. As a result, while some might envy the plush work environment and benefits provided to Google employees, the inhumane working conditions that workers around the world sadly endure are no longer acceptable within the United States.
The trajectory of work has been reimagined over the next century, creating transformative effects such as the development of the Rust Belt in areas of the Midwest and Northeast. The regional decay of once vibrant industrial hubs in the United States and the outsourcing of many work sectors led to the decline of these factory towns and gave rise to a substantial portion of the U.S. electorate who felt left out and left behind. Within these communities, there's a strong desire for acknowledgment of their challenges and proposals to rejuvenate their ailing townships and bolster morale. Nostalgia for an era when "Made in the USA" held more prominence than it does in today's globalized work environment serves to accentuate the contrasts and emerging realities.
Welcomed or not, the global pandemic reimagined the workspace in monumental ways, redefining where and how we work. The shuttering factory of yesteryear gave way not only to replacing the company cubicle with home work spaces but to the ways we think about being present at work and engaging with colleagues. Furthermore, it has catalyzed the emergence of a novel category of working professionals, a concept first introduced by author and sociologist Rosalind Williams. In her work "Retooling: A Historian Confronts Technological Change," Williams highlights the ascent of what she terms the "laptop class.” This category enjoys enhanced mobility and autonomy, granting them increased control over various aspects of work, work-life balance boundaries, and work culture. A study conducted by Pew Research in March 2023 found that 35% of U.S. workers are now working from home consistently, with 71% affirming that it has positively influenced their work-life balance. In contrast, 61% of U.S. workers lack the option to work remotely. This discrepancy highlights a societal divide concerning access to specific working arrangements and expands the conversation and implications on opportunities and access afforded to American workers.
As the Director of Education and Innovation for Civic Spirit, a non-partisan civics organization working with schools across faith traditions, teaching about the role of work in our nation’s history raises many topics for study, such as the progression of workers' rights, including efforts to secure equal pay for women amidst evidence of gross disparities, the impact of technological advancement, and the changing political realities in a converging business world to name a few. Cultural shifts and rifts often give rise to new challenges and promise. How do they bring new life to foundational freedoms, and do these changing realities propel a nation to think about securing them for all?
As we wave goodbye to the freshness of the summer aura this Labor Day, let us refresh our thought paradigms about work, its meaning, and the opportunities for progress they welcome.
A view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2026. President Donald Trump jolted Republicans during a fiery appearance at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, scrapping a housing bill signing ceremony and clashing behind closed doors with a party rebel who challenged him over the Iran war. Trump had been expected to sign the bipartisan housing.
Only Trump doesn’t care about housing
It was August 15, 2024. Then candidate Donald Trump stepped out of his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club’s columned clubhouse to a gaggle of reporters. He was flanked by tables of groceries and signs showing the rising cost of food. Also on one of the tables was a dollhouse, meant to represent the equally alarming rise in housing prices.
It was a speech about the economy, the single most important issue of the 2024 election cycle, full of promises that went right to the heart of Americans’ anxieties. While former President Joe Biden and then Vice President Kamala Harris were contorting themselves to posture a good economy that just needed more time to recover from the pandemic, Trump was preying on voters’ very real fears of unaffordable gas, groceries, and homes. It was obviously a winning message.
In that speech, Trump promised, “We’re going to open up tracts of federal land for housing construction. We desperately need housing for people who can’t afford what’s going on now.”
As of mid-2023, there had been a housing shortage of nearly four million homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. Americans all over the country were either priced out of buying new homes due to low inventory, trapped in their existing homes by sky-high mortgage rates, or facing exorbitant rent hikes thanks to corporate investors buying up rental properties. Americans needed help, and Trump promised it.
Cut to March of 2026, when Trump reportedly told House Speaker Mike Johnson, “No one gives a sh*t about housing.”
That kind of thinking may explain why Trump this week suddenly announced he was canceling a signing ceremony for the bipartisan “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” a housing bill co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott that passed the House 358-32 and was approved in the Senate on Monday.
Trump instead demanded Congress pass the SAVE America Act, his controversial election grievance bill that doesn’t have enough Republican support to get passed in the Senate.
It’s just the latest in a line of policy self-owns where Trump has seemingly intentionally made life more difficult for Republicans hoping to keep their majority. Despite midterm elections occurring in the midst of a blistering economy and an unpopular war, they were surely hoping the housing bill would give them something — anything — to brag about when they returned home to their districts.
And very much to the contrary, Americans do give a sh*t about housing. According to a recent survey by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a whopping 79% say the cost of housing is extremely or very important to them. Eighty-three percent say Congress should take action on the issue — like it just did. Eighty-nine percent say the House and Senate need to work together to pass affordable housing legislation — like they just did. And 63% say they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker if they helped pass legislation to build more affordable homes and lower housing costs — like they just did.
There aren’t many issues that unite Americans like housing does, and very few bipartisan policy wins Congress can point to, and yet, Trump is holding that bill hostage in order to get his pet project — which doesn’t even have the support of his own party — pushed through.
If you’re trying to make sense of something so nonsensical, as I’m sure many Republican lawmakers are, it’s certainly sad but not actually all that complicated. Trump said what he needed to get reelected and then promptly abandoned his promises in order to pursue his own self-interests, even if those interests are bad for Republicans and bad for voters.
That’s just the kind of guy he is.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.