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The Historical Presidency : “The Fibre of which Presidents Ought to Be Made”: Union Busting from Rutherford Hayes to Scott Walker
Author(s) -
Walker Alexis N.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/psq.12258
Subject(s) - presidential system , presidency , nomination , governor , political science , law , public administration , politics , engineering , aerospace engineering
Scott Walker's meteoric rise from a Milwaukee county executive in 2010 to a leading contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination surprised many observers. But Walker's trajectory is part of a robust tradition dating back to the 1870s of conservative presidential hopefuls and presidents advancing and defining their careers through union busting. Like Governor Walker, Governor Hayes, McKinley, and Coolidge used confrontations with organized labor to thrust themselves into the national spotlight and position themselves for a presidential run. Challenging labor has also boosted the reputations of incumbent presidents for tough and decisive leadership, most recently, as Walker knew well, in the case of Ronald Reagan's response to the air traffic controllers’ strike. Presidents and presidential hopefuls have battled organized labor to demonstrate that they are presidential material, and Walker learned the lesson well: union busting pays.