Ilhan Omar Wants You to Remember the ‘Radical Origins’ of Labor Day

As Americans prepare for Hurricane Dorian and simultaneously attempt to celebrate Labor Day, Ilhan Omar wants you to remember what’s important. In a tweet this afternoon she posted that the ‘radical origins’ should not be forgotten. While U.S. history is never something to be whitewashed, it’s interesting how the left picks and chooses what to remember, and what to forget. In this instance Rep. Omar believes your back to school celebrations should include being woke about how, in her words, labor rights are ‘once again under attack nationwide’. She tweeted a Washington Post article to shore up her reminiscing.

While the history behind labor day is a controversial one, it may be hard for some to make the connection. In 1894, Grover Cleveland officiated Labor Day into a federal holiday after a failed attempt to break up a railroad strike. But converting this into lamenting the near-record unemployment numbers and rising wages in President Trump’s 2019 jobs market, one might beg the question of; ‘what is your point, Omar?’ I don’t see anything in the article about labor rights being under attack currently, so if she has another source, perhaps she should cite it?

In an economy where labor rights are poor, generally, it means people don’t have options to go to a different job. But with millions of job openings and rising wages, it seems as though the free market system under the pro job political environment we are in is encouraging competition and diversity of employment options.

From CNBC:

Wages also continued to increase, with the 3.2% year-over-year gain topping expectations by one-tenth of a percentage point. Average weekly hours edged lower to 34.3.

Economists had expected the unemployment rate to drop to 3.6%, which would have tied a 50-year low, but an influx of 370,000 new workers to the labor force brought the participation rate up to 63%, its highest since March. The total labor force of 163.4 million set a record high.

The report “illustrates that, for all the concern over weak global growth and trade policy, the domestic economy is still holding up reasonably well,” said Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

SEE TWEET FROM @Ilhan BELOW:

Labor Day became a federal holiday after a company cut wages for thousands of railroad workers, resulting in nationwide strikes.

With labor rights once again under attack nationwide, let’s not forget the radical origins of Labor Day! https://t.co/w6KskPvRuh pic.twitter.com/F7W13Un7yk

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) September 2, 2019

This isn’t to say that there aren’t any poor labor conditions across the nation, or that there aren’t people struggling to make ends meet. To the contrary, our goal should be to continually strive for better American jobs and higher American wages. Encouraging this with good economic policies instead of shedding negative sentiments on U.S. Holidays may be a better way to do that.