Labor Line

August 2026_________________________ 

Labor line has job news and commentary with a one stop short cut for America’s job markets and job related data including the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

This month's job and employment summary data are below and this month's inflation data is below that. 

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The BLS Establishment Job Report with data released August 7, 2026.

Commentary From This Month’s Establishment Jobs Press Report

A BAD MONTH

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published its August report for jobs in July. The Household Survey for July shows the adult civilian population increased by 116 thousand. However, the labor force declined again, this month by 264 thousand, as did the employed, down 87 thousand and also the unemployed, down 178 thousand. Those not in the labor force went up 381 thousand; the number of adults not in the labor force totals 106.189 million, an amount 6 million more than July two years ago. The decrease in the unemployed was large enough to offset the decrease in the employed and cause a small decrease in the unemployment rate of .1 percent to 4.1 percent. The labor force participation rate declined again by .1 percent to 61.4 percent, a very low level.

The seasonally adjusted total of establishment employment was down 23 thousand for July. The decrease was 5 thousand more jobs in the private service sector combined with an increase of 25 thousand jobs from goods production. The total of 30 thousand new jobs in the private sector combined with a(n) decrease of 53 thousand government service jobs accounts for the total change.

Goods production had 25 thousand new jobs after last month’s smaller increase. Natural resources decreased 2 thousand jobs; construction added 22.1 thousand new jobs. Specialty trade contractors added 18 thousand jobs. Construction of buildings added another 3.7 thousand jobs. Heavy and civil engineering construction added 400 jobs. Manufacturing had a net increase of 5 thousand jobs with 18 thousand more durable goods jobs but with a loss of 13 thousand jobs in non-durable goods production. Among durable goods, transportation equipment had 11.9 thousand new jobs with 7.9 thousand of them in automobile manufacturing.  Non-durable goods production did poorly. Food processing lost 6.2 thousand jobs but no non-durables did well with jobs in textiles, chemicals, plastics and rubber products, beverages, tobacco and leather products all down.

Government service employment decreased 53 thousand jobs, a much bigger decrease than last month. The federal government dropped 3 thousand jobs. State government jobs were up 7 thousand but local government was down 57 thousand jobs. State and local government excluding education both lost jobs, down a combined 9 thousand jobs. State public education was up 8.7 thousand jobs while local government education declined by 49.6 thousand seasonally adjusted jobs. Private sector education added 2.8 thousand jobs for a net education job loss of 38.1 thousand jobs.

Health care took first place among service sectors but with only 23 thousand new jobs, a very low number for the biggest increase in a month’s jobs. Three of the four health care subsectors added some employment with ambulatory care adding 18.1 thousand jobs; hospitals were down 400 jobs; nursing and residential care added 4.3 thousand jobs. Social assistance services added a net of 600 jobs but with 7.8 thousand new jobs in individual and family services but a decrease of 5.7 thousand jobs in child care services. The growth rate for health care was down from last month to 1.14 percent, well below the average of 2.27 percent per month of the last 15 years.

Professional and business services were up a net of 18 thousand jobs, less than last month. The professional and technical service sub sector was up a net 5.1 thousand jobs; management of companies went up 7.8 thousand jobs, an unusually large increase. The third sub sector, administrative and support services including waste management, added 5.1 thousand jobs.

Among professional and technical services scientific research and development services added 5.3 thousand jobs and architecture and engineering services added 4.6 thousand jobs. However, both computer systems and design services and management scientific and technical consulting lost jobs, down a combined 4.3 thousand jobs. Among administrative support services, employment services added 4.1 thousand jobs among other small job gains and losses.

Trade, transportation and utilities lost a net 4 thousand jobs again, with wholesale trade up 4.7 thousand jobs but retail trade down 19.4 thousand jobs. Transportation had 9.7 thousand jobs but with the couriers and messengers sub sector posting 14.9 thousand new jobs among other smaller net gains and losses.

Leisure and hospitality had another off month down 40 thousand jobs, after last month’s bigger decrease. The arts, entertainment and recreation sub sector lost 16.1 thousand jobs with performing arts and spectator sports down 6.3 thousand jobs and amusement, gambling and recreation down another 10.1 thousand jobs. Restaurants lost 26.1 thousand jobs, another large job loss for a month. Accommodations made a slight come back adding 2.6 thousand jobs.

Information services added 11 thousand jobs after last month’s large losses. Motion picture and sound recording added 9.9 thousand jobs. Computing, data processing and web hosting also added jobs, 2.4 thousand, but no sub sector did well for information services.

Finance and real estate lost 14 thousand jobs, another month of job losses. Finance and insurance lost 14.1 thousand of the jobs where insurance carriers lost 6.7 thousand and all the banking sub sectors lost jobs as well. Real estate added 1.4 thousand jobs offset with job losses in rental and leasing services for a net increase of 200 jobs.

The other services category had a net of 10 thousand more jobs, up slightly from last month. Repair and maintenance services added 15.9 thousand jobs, an unusually large increase, but offset by job losses in personal and laundry services and non-profit associations.

The economy lost 23 thousand jobs for July. Establishment employment in July was reported as 158.858 million with an annual growth rate of -.17 percent. It is the second consecutive month that the labor force, the employed and the unemployed all decreased. While the unemployment rate remains low, it is becoming irrelevant as a way to measure a bad economy. Again, health care had a low job increase, about a quarter of the jobs it should have. Professional and business services did poorly as did education. This month’s job total is 316 thousand above July a year ago and 1.110 million jobs above July two years ago. These numbers keep falling month by month; the 316 thousand number should set off alarm bells it is so low for a year of new jobs.

July Details 

Jobs

Total Non-Farm Establishment Jobs down 23,000 to 158,858,000

Total Private Jobs up 30,000 to 135,588,000

Total Government Employment down 53,000 to 23,270,000 Note 

Civilian Non-Institutional Population up 116 thousand to 275,282,000

Civilian Labor Force down 264 thousand to 169,094,000

Employed down 87 thousand to 162,177,000

Employed Men up 124 thousand to 84,978,000

Employed Women down 211 thousand to 77,199,000

Unemployed down 178 thousand to 6,916,000

Not in the Labor Force up 381 thousand to 106,189,000

Unemployment Rate decreased .1 percent to 4.1% 6,916/169,094

Labor Force Participation Rate decreased .1 percent to 61.4%, or 169,094/275,282

Summaries by Industry

Non Farm Total -23

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported Non-Farm employment for establishments decreased from June by 23 thousand jobs for a(n) July total of 158.858 million. (Note 1 below) A decrease of 23 thousand each month for the next 12 months represents an annual growth rate of -.17% The annual growth rate from a year ago beginning July 2025 was +.20%; the average annual growth rate from 5 years ago beginning July 2021 was +1.65%; from 15 years ago beginning July 2011 it was +1.24%. The higher five year growth rate derives from the low Pandemic employment. America needs growth around 1.5 percent a year to keep itself employed.

Sector breakdown for 12 Sectors in 000’s of jobs 

1. Natural Resources -2

Natural Resources jobs including logging and mining decreased 2 thousand from June with 607 thousand jobs in July. A decrease of 2 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -3.94 percent.   Natural resource jobs were down 3 thousand from a year ago. Jobs in 2000 averaged around 603 thousand with little prospect for growth.  This is the smallest of 12 major sectors of the economy with .4 percent of establishment jobs.

2. Construction +22

Construction jobs were up 22 thousand from June with 8.343 million jobs in July. An increase of 22 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +3.17 percent.  Construction jobs are up 82 thousand for the 12 months just ended. The growth rate for the last 15 years is 2.76%. Construction jobs rank 9th among the 12 sectors with 5.3 percent of non-farm employment.

3. Manufacturing +5

Manufacturing jobs were up 5 thousand from June with 12.611 million jobs in July. An increase of 5 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.45 percent.  Manufacturing jobs were down for the last 12 months by 14 thousand. The growth rate for the last 15 years is +.48%. Manufacturing ranks 6th among 12 major sectors in the economy with 7.9 percent of establishment jobs.

4. Trade, Transportation & Utility -4

Trade, both wholesale and retail, transportation and utility employment were down 4 thousand jobs from June with 28.708 million jobs in July. A decrease of 4 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -.17 percent. Jobs are down by 36 thousand for last 12 months. Growth rates for the last 15 years are +.92 percent. Jobs in these sectors rank first as the biggest sectors with combined employment of 18.1 percent of total establishment employment.

5. Information Services +11

Information Services employment was up by 11 thousand jobs from June with 2.780 million jobs in July.  (Note 2 below)  An increase of 11 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +4.77 percent. Jobs are down by 81 thousand for the last 12 months. Information jobs reached 3.7 million at the end of 2000, but started dropping, reaching 3 million by 2004 but has stayed below 3.0 million for more than a decade. Information Services is a small sector ranking 11th of 12 with 1.8 percent of establishment jobs.

6. Financial Activities -14

Financial Activities employment was down by 14 thousand jobs from June to 9.090 million in July. (Note 3 below) (Note 2 below)  A decrease of 14 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -1.85 percent. Jobs are down by 114 thousand for the last 12 months.  This sector also includes real estate as well as real estate lending. The 15 year growth rate is +1.12 percent. Financial activities rank 8th of 12 with 5.8 percent of establishment jobs.

7. Business and Professional Services +18

Business and Professional Service jobs went up 18 thousand from June to 22.518 million in July. An increase of 18 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +.96 percent. Jobs are down 32 thousand for the last 12 months. Note 4 The annual growth rate for the last 15 years was +1.77 percent. It ranks as 2nd among the 12 sectors now. It was 2nd in 1993, when manufacturing was bigger and third rank now with 14.1 percent of establishment employment. 

8. Education including public and private -38

Education jobs were down 38 thousand jobs from June at 14.802 million in July. A decrease of 38 thousand jobs each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -3.08 percent. These include public and private education. Jobs are down 101 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 5) The 15 year growth rate equals +.62 percent. Education ranks 5th among 12 sectors with 9.4 percent of establishment jobs.

9. Health Care +23

Health care jobs were up 23 thousand from June to 23.912 million in July. An increase of 23 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.14 percent. Jobs are up 552 thousand for the last 12 months. (note 6)  The health care long term 15-year growth rate has been +2.27 percent lately compared to +1.14 percent for this month’s jobs. Health care ranks 2nd of 12 with 15.0 percent of establishment jobs.

10. Leisure and hospitality -40

Leisure and hospitality jobs were down 40 thousand from June to 16.931 million in July.  (note 7) A decrease of 40 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -2.83 percent. Jobs are down 94 thousand for the last 12 months. More than 80 percent of leisure and hospitality are accommodations and restaurants assuring that most of the new jobs are in restaurants. Leisure and hospitality ranks 4th of 12 with 10.7 percent of establishment jobs. It moved up to 7th from 4th in the pandemic decline.

11. Other +10

Other Service jobs, which include repair, maintenance, personal services and non-profit organizations were up 10 thousand from June to 6.039 million in July. An increase of 10 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of +1.99 percent. Jobs are up 50 thousand for the last 12 months. (Note 8) Other services had +.80 percent growth for the last 15 years. These sectors rank 10th of 12 with 3.8 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.

12. Government, excluding education -12

Government service employment went down 12 thousand from June at 12.518 million jobs in July. A decrease of 12 thousand each month for the next 12 months would be an annual growth rate of -1.15 percent. Jobs are down 216 thousand for the last 12 months.  (note 9) Government jobs excluding education tend to increase slowly with a 15 year growth rate of +.39 percent. Government, excluding education, ranks 7th of 12 with 7.9 percent of total non-farm establishment jobs.

Prices and inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all Urban Consumers was up by a monthly average of 2.9 percent for 2025. 

The CPI July report for the 12 months ending with June shows the 

CPI for All Items was up 3.5% 

CPI for Food and Beverages was up 3.0% 

CPI for Housing was up 3.3% 

CPI for Apparel was up 3.9% 

CPI for Transportation including gasoline was up 6.5% 

CPI for Medical Care was up 2.0% 

CPI for Recreation was up 2.8% 

CPI for Education was up 2.5% 

CPI for Communication was down 2.1% 

Sector Notes__________________________

(1) The total cited above is non-farm establishment employment that counts jobs and not people. If one person has two jobs then two jobs are counted. It excludes agricultural employment and the self employed. Out of a total of people employed agricultural employment typically has about 1.5 percent, the self employed about 6.8 percent, the rest make up wage and salary employment. Jobs and people employed are close to the same, but not identical numbers because jobs are not the same as people employed: some hold two jobs. Remember all these totals are jobs. back

(2) Information Services is part of the new North American Industry Classification System(NAICS). It includes firms or establishments in publishing, motion picture & sound recording, broadcasting, Internet publishing and broadcasting, telecommunications, ISPs, web search portals, data processing, libraries, archives and a few others.back

(3) Financial Activities includes deposit and non-deposit credit firms, most of which are still known as banks, savings and loan and credit unions, but also real estate firms and general and commercial rental and leasing.back

(4) Business and Professional services includes the professional areas such as legal services, architecture, engineering, computing, advertising and supporting services including office services, facilities support, services to buildings, security services, employment agencies and so on.back

(5) Education includes private and public education. Therefore education job totals include public schools and colleges as well as private schools and colleges. back

(6) Health care includes ambulatory care, private hospitals, nursing and residential care, and social services including child care. back

(7) Leisure and hospitality has establishment with arts, entertainment and recreation which has performing arts, spectator sports, gambling, fitness centers and others, which are the leisure part. The hospitality part has accommodations, motels, hotels, RV parks, and full service and fast food restaurants. back

(8) Other is a smorgasbord of repair and maintenance services, especially car repair, personal services and non-profit services of organizations like foundations, social advocacy and civic groups, and business, professional, labor unions, political groups and political parties. back

(9) Government job totals include federal, state, and local government administrative work but without education jobs. back

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Notes

Jobs are not the same as employment because jobs are counted once but one person could have two jobs adding one to employment but two to jobs. Also the employment numbers include agricultural workers, the self employed, unpaid family workers, household workers and those on unpaid leave. Jobs are establishment jobs and non-other. back

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The Betrayal - Ira Shapiro

 Ira Shapiro, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America, (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2022) ISBN 9781538163979, 241 pages

In the first sentence of his preface author Ira Shapiro declares The Betrayal as “the most catastrophic failure of government in American History.” A brief discussion of constitutional checks and balances reminds readers our Constitution should be able to prevent autocratic takeover of government. There follows a summary listing of failures of government with Mitch McConnell directing the Republicans and the U.S. Senate, along with a reminder that Trump needed McConnell more than McConnell needed Trump.

The book has eleven chapters and a brief epilogue. The first chapter reviews some Senate history from not that long ago when Mike Mansfield managed the Senate and persuaded Republicans and Democrats to respect each other and their constitutional duties. The second chapter reviews the career and work of Mitch McConnell before Trump took office; especially during the Obama administration.

The remainder of the book covers the period from Trump’s 2016 election to the end of 2021. The chapters recount Mitch McConnell managing his political agenda and on multiple occasions managing Trump during Trump’s first term. McConnell worked hard to repeal Obama Care but fell short, his only personal failure. Next, Shapiro narrates the maneuvers that put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. There follows the story of saving Brett Kavanaugh for another Supreme Court seat.

After the Democrats took charge of the House following the mid-term elections, McConnell announced his return to obstructing Democrats and Congress in any way possible. The House voted to impeach Trump after his attempt to extort political favors from Ukraine officials, which McConnell predictably opposed and defeated. Shapiro narrates McConnell’s strategy for a Senate trial with its foregone conclusion.

By now in early 2020 with the Covid-19 Pandemic under way, Shapiro tells the story of Trump at his “super spreader” worst with McConnell “curiously disengaged” while occasionally maneuvering between common sense and partisan politics as suited his personal agenda. Then RGB dies and McConnell swings into action to get Amy Coney Barrett, a Scalia protégé, onto the Supreme Court before the 2020 election.

Next comes the 2020 presidential election in a chapter entitled appropriately “The Big Lie.” McConnell refused to condemn Trump for this election denial, which he described as “a few legal inquiries.” When McConnell belated realized that Trump’s misconduct had ended his run as majority leader, he finally got angry enough to speak against him and defend the election in a Senate speech Shapiro quotes in its entirety. Unfortunately for McConnell his speech was delivered on the morning of January 6.

Shapiro recounts daily events leading up to the attack and then a concise discussion of the January 6 events. The attack was so violent and so obviously planned by Trump that the House Democratic majority had enough votes to bring another impeachment. The account of the impeachment and trial follows where Shapiro provides the evidence that McConnell could have delivered the Senate votes to convict, but found an excuse to vote in Trump’s favor.

The book winds down considering the prospects for President Joe Biden in a Senate with a 50-50 split that included erratic allies like Joe Manchin and opponents like Mitch McConnell. A foul mouthed and disruptive ex-president, still a profitable topic for media coverage, attacked every Biden effort.

The stories narrated through the book come peppered with the conduct and quoted views of many people. Of course, there is Trump, but other names come up many times such as dithering Susan Collins, the amoral Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Lamar Alexander, Amy Klobachar, Charles Grassley, Joe Manchin, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Rudy Giuliani. Still the book remains primarily about the political misconduct of Mitch McConnell and his legacy. Shapiro suggests a legacy for McConnell, but given the brevity of his comments he appears more inclined to be let McConnell’s record speak for itself.

While the record is clear, Shapiro uses his final pages to remind us McConnell served as majority leader longer than anyone while suggesting a broader and more damaging legacy than what he did to remake the Supreme Court and save Trump from his various follies. While these make up the primary topics of the book, Shapiro mentions McConnell’s work cutting taxes for the rich, deregulating corporate America, and his fight to end Biden Administration efforts to address climate change, an especially unconscionable misconduct for an 80 year old who will not live to bear the consequences of his work. In summary conclusion, “McConnell has ultimately come down on the side of polarization and disunion rather than compromise and reconciliation.” From McConnell’s published memoir, he comments “there is not a page in it that shows concern about the people of Kentucky.”

The book ended without exploring polarization and disunion in more detail or how much McConnell has pursued the corporate agenda like a devoted follower and paid employee. Corporate America promotes and benefits from the racial and ethnic hatreds that divides the electorate. Division turns the working class into warring factions and keeps them in feeble disarray while allowing corporate America to take their wealth by intentionally impoverishing the working class.

The book reads easily as well organized and well documented journalism. There are 30 pages of notes and a four page essay on sources that serves as a bibliography for any interested readers. Betrayal serves as another book on the continuing decline of the United States. Remember the book’s publication date of 2022; well before the second term. Maybe disunion should be replaced by disintegration

 

 

Construction Laborers

 

Construction Laborer

Standard Occupational Classification 47-2061

I happened to be driving in Ohio in a northwesterly direction on Route 250 just coming up on Norwalk when I passed the sign below for a construction company wanting to hire laborers for $34.00 and hour, an amount that translates into an annual salary of $70,720 a year assuming a forty hour week and two weeks’ vacation.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) defines an occupation, construction laborer, as one of its standard occupations in its Standard Occupational Classifications (SOC) Manual. Construction laborer, a.k.a. 47-2061, had nationwide employment of 1,096,780 in 2025, the biggest construction occupation of 61 construction and extraction occupations. The SOC defines it as a job that “perform tasks involving physical labor at the construction site. May operate hand and power tools of all types: air hammers, earth tampers, cement mixers . . . May clean and prepare sites, dig trenches, brace excavations, erect scaffolding, and clean up rubble . . .”

BLS reports an increase of 209,200 employed as construction laborers from 2015 to 2025 but a smaller increase of 162,780 from 2005 to 2025. The median national wage for construction laborers in 2025 was $22.66 an hour, up from $12.22 in 2005 and $15.34 in 2015. The annual inflation rate from 2015 to 2025 was 3.11 percent, but the annual percentage increase in the median wage was 3.97 percent, assuring an increase in buying power.

The Ohio median wage for construction laborers in 2025 was $26.96, up from $15.51 in 2005 and $17.66 in 2015. The annual percentage increase in the median wage was 4.32 percent, well above the 3.11 inflation rate. BLS reports the 90^th percentile wage for construction laborers as $37.54 an hour; 90th percentile wage in Ohio is $38.04 an hour. A $34.00 assures at least 10 percent of the 1,096,780 construction laborers, or 109,678, make more than $34.00 an hour, but nothing assures applicants will get full time work; the annual wage may not be as much as it looks.

The $34.00 an hour wage for a job doing physical labor that requires no formal educational credential of any kind, not even a high school degree, suggests a company hoping to draw applicants from other types of lower paid, part time work. For a construction job doing day long physical labor suggests a job for younger applicants, but BLS reports population growth of those 16 to 34 years old has slowed to a crawl suggesting a need to add to the wage offer to get what they need. The Trump administration shutting down immigration and deporting immigrants confirms another source of the higher wage. For the savvy teen finishing high school it’s an entry level job with a path to a skilled trade.

We the People

 

Jill Lepore, We the People: A History of the United States Constitution, (NY: Liveright Publishing Co., 2025) 581 pages

We the People begins with an introduction establishing America’s 18^th century colonists expected constitutions will be amendable. Toward the end of this 22 page introduction author Lepore explains the “book is a history of American constitutionalism as told through a collection of stories about constitutional change.” It relies on an archive of every significant proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution, assembled as part of a personal project of the author.

The book has four parts with each part subdivided into three, or once four, chapters. Parts follow in chronological order with Part I from 1774 to 1791; Part II 1803-1896; Part III 1905-1959; Part IV 1961-2016. A brief epilogue ends the book.

Part I opens with the First Continental Congress in September 1774 when the colonies sent delegates to draft a constitutional document to replace British colonial government with a system of self-government. Lepore takes readers through state conventions drafting and attempting to ratify their constitutions and then to the drafting of the 1781 Articles of Confederation.  Narrative continues with the arguments writing our U.S. Constitution at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the difficulties getting it ratified, and the ultimate drafting and adoption of the bill of rights.

Small groups drafted these many constitutions and then made them public hoping to get them ratified, but mostly they got a torrent of criticism and demands to change them. Opposition to slavery was strong and attempts to end it and define the rights of blacks brought lots of arguments, as did the constitutional status of women and Indians. When the delegates that worked through the summer of 1787 finished their work, there were renewed demands for amendments. Since their new constitution included Article V detailing an amendment process, James Madison convinced opponents they could amend after ratification. He succeeded in getting the constitution ratified as originally written by condensing the many proposals into ten amendments put at the end of the constitution as the Bill of Rights.

In 1787 it was not obvious amending the constitution would be as hard as it has turned out to be. In each of the remaining three parts Lepore has pages with lists of proposed amendments made as part of political party platforms. The lists provide topics for narrating the repeating demands for change by formal amendment, for narrating alternative constitutional interpretations and for reviewing Supreme Court rulings on constitutional disputes brought to it.

Part II has a thorough discussion of controversies over citizenship, the 1843 Seneca Falls women’s rights conference, voting rights, the nullification claims of John C. Calhoun and the claims of Chief Justice John Marshall to make the Supreme Court the final arbiter of constitutional disputes. Discussion of many Supreme Court cases and their influence on law and politics begin here with Marbury v. Madison and continues through the narrative where readers meet more justices with new views and new cases, often contesting and reinterpreting disputes.

The narrative considers the legal and constitutional chaos of the Civil War and reconstruction. Members of Congress proposed many amendments as a hope to avert war. One, the Corwin Amendment, would have prohibited amendments to abolish slavery. It would come again in March 1956 as the “Lost Amendment.” There is a thorough discussion of the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th amendments and the effort to define citizenship and guarantee civil rights to all. Lepore considers the controversies over rights to self government for those living in U. S. territories, especially Hawaii and Hawaiians, but also Chinese, Japanese and American Indians.

The Part III period 1905-1959 included the amendments 16 through 19 ratified from 1913 to 1920, where three of the four amendments – income tax, prohibition, and women’s suffrage – came after decades of protest. An amendment to abolish child labor began appearing on party platforms in this era, mostly as a response to the Supreme Court refusal to allow it; it failed. Lepore gives a thorough review of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court decision, the protest that followed and demands to repeal it by defiance or amendment.

In the Part IV years 1961-2016 readers meet Indiana Senator Birch Bayh who took over the Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments in 1963. He convinced the country and the Congress to ratify amendment 24, 25 and 26 and almost succeeded abolishing the electoral college via another amendment. It was an era of well funded interest groups which brought an unprecedented number of Article V applications for constitutional conventions. Lepore explores a variety of amendment proposals for the right to life, school prayer, a balanced budget, busing, campaign finance, Indian rights and the controversies over judicial appointments. There follows another lengthy discussion of women’s rights and the ERA that includes the efforts of Patsy Takemoto Mink, Phyllis Schlafly and Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, along with a review of gay rights, black rights and calls for significant changes to the constitution.

The last chapter before the epilogue features the life and career of Justice Antonin Scalia during the years he served on the Supreme Court: 1986-2016. Featuring Scalia appears to be a device to narrate the polarizing jurisprudence of a period when constitutional amendments became impossible. Since Scalia left a trail of academic writing and did not hesitate to give speeches, conduct seminars and offer his judicial views in television interviews, his claim our constitution had an original intent to guide jurisprudence free from politics and personal preference generated significant public argument in these years. Lepore narrates these arguments, emphasizing Scalia’s gun rights opinion in D.C. v. Heller, which captures the hypocrisy of it all.

In her brief epilogue Lepore reminds us our founding fathers believed in reason and progress, but mentions “outdated constitutions undermine democratic governance.” Then she questions if there is a point beyond which a constitution cannot be stretched but breaks. Our Constitution feels obsolete, to be charitable. In We the People Lepore makes it feel much worse than obsolete. By covering events from 1774 to the present Lepore establishes the same disputes occur and then recur as unresolved politics from one century to the next: women and minority rights to wit. Powerful interests have repeatedly exploited the undemocratic features of our constitution to block and stall and impose their will without regard to compromise or democracy or public welfare as the many events Lepore narrates here so clearly prove. Legislation is hard enough to pass in our bicameral Congress, but given the Supreme Court expects to nullify laws passed by an elected Congress, disputes that could and should be resolved with legislation become amendment proposals instead: abortion to wit. Since Article V makes amendment difficult to impossible, change comes to a halt while protest continues or returns in a new generation. The book fully captures the rambling, hurtling cycles of anger, frustration and chaos in a perpetually polarized country. In the 21^st century money alone governs America, where our outdated constitution undermines democratic governance.

Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn

Christopher Cox, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn, (NY: Simon & Shuster, 2024), ISBN 978-1-6680-1078-5

This new biography of Woodrow Wilson gets its subtitle from the first line of the John Greenleaf Whittier poem “Ichabod.”

So Fallen! So lost! The light withdrawn

Which once he wore!

The Glory from his gray hairs gone

Forevermore!

Biographies of presidents typically emphasize their time in office and the political events they pursue, but this biography concentrates on racial and gender discrimination during Woodrow Wilson’s life and how he addressed them before and after he became president The book covers 495 pages with the narrative partitioned into four parts. Part I begins with a summary discussion of the early crusade against slavery and women’s suffrage movement before turning to Wilson’s 1856 birth, early life, education, a brief year practicing law, marriage and accepting faculty posts teaching at Bryn Mawr, Wesleyan University, and Princeton University; he accepted the Princeton Board’s offer to be their president in June 1902.

Other Wilson biographies write extensively of his legislative record: the Federal Reserve Act, Clayton Antitrust Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and progressive income tax, but none of that appears in this Cox biography. Instead, the narrative through the book emphasizes the documented record of Wilson’s personal relations with family and friends and with university scholars and politicians, both his supporters and detractors. Beginning with his academic years he published books of history and politics in 1885, 1889, 1893, 1897, and 1902. Cox scoured these works and Wilson’s other writing, archival letters, relationships, and associations. The narrative returns repeatedly to the published record of his racial views and his decades long opposition to woman’s suffrage.

The chapters of Part I offer a sampling of Woodrow Wilson’s views during Reconstruction and the early Jim Crow south. He predicts the right to vote without regard to race would “make the ‘disintegration of southern society’ and the ‘irretrievable’ alienation of ‘the white men of the South,’ its ‘real leaders.’” In his History of the American People he explained “It is ‘the mere instinct of self-preservation’ that forced ‘the white men of the South’ to do everything within their power to restore white supremacy ‘by means fair or foul.’”  Wilson’s apologizes for the Ku Klux Klan admitting “the Klansmen ‘took the law into their own hands,’ but undertook ‘by intimidation what they were not allowed to attempt by the ballot.’” He concluded the Klan was “really ‘for the mere pleasure of association, for private amusement.’” Cox provides a thorough narrative of his discomfort and unlikely appointment to teach at Bryn Mawr, a women’s college. Bryn Mawr documents an early episode of a long trail of evidence documenting Wilson’s refusal to accept women as equals.

Part II offers a discussion of him as Princeton President, elected Governor of New Jersey and first term as president. His years in politics forced him to take positions and make decisions on race and woman’s suffrage rather than write or ventilate about them. Cox quotes Wilson as telling his gubernatorial campaign manager he was “definitely and irreconcilably opposed to woman suffrage” and that “woman’s place was in the home.” His writing and documented decisions find him opposed to admitting black men to Princeton, opposing unions, opposing immigrants and purging the federal government of black employees while arranging to have the racist film “Birth of a Nation” shown at the White House.

Available evidence permits Cox to give readers an idea of Wilson in his personal life. Hundreds of letters survive to and from his two wives, Ellen Axxon and Edith Galt, and a third relationship with Mary Peck Hulbert. In letters to Ellen, he wrote “Marriage alone was a woman’s ‘essential condition’ for the performance of her ‘proper duties.’” Readers learn Wilson leaves on vacations without Ellen such as one to Bermuda where he meets Mary Peck and starts an indeterminate relationship of eight years documented with 700 letters. We learn of the personal Wilson, a man of “immutable routines,” who enjoys taking afternoon drives and plays golf as part of his daily schedule, finishing 1,200 rounds of golf as president.

Part III, entitled Holding Back the Tide, covers December 1916 to December 1917, a period that energized the Women’s suffrage movement with intensified political pressure to secure national voting rights. Cox covers their campaign thoroughly. Readers meet many women, the groups they organize and the protest marches and demonstrations they conduct. During this period, Wilson reversed his pledge to keep America out of WWI. He prevailed on Congress to declare war to make the world “Safe for Democracy” while simultaneously demanding to silence opposition to American entry into WWI in a well-documented campaign of repression and censorship. During this period the war became an excuse for Wilson to repress and censor woman demonstrating for voting rights. Cox narrates Wilson’s deliberate use of arrest, intimidation and violence to end street protest that included periods of physical abuse in jails and forced feeding of hunger strikers.

Part IV has the remaining years of his second term. By this time women had the right to vote in 13 states, including New York, increasing the political risk to Democratic party opponents of voting. Then Republicans took over the House and Senate in the November 1918 election. When WWI ended November 11, Wilson insisted on going to Paris to negotiate the peace treaty and establish a League of Nations instead of staying home to confront domestic turmoil, especially passing a federal budget, inflation and violent race riots. Cox tells the remaining story of Wilson maneuvering within his administration and his posturing in the House and Senate in the political fight to secure voting rights for woman. Cox gives details of the Congressional debate and final votes in June 1919. Tennessee became the last state to ratify the Susan B. Anthony Amendment that finally became part of the U.S. Constitution August 18, 1920. The narrative ends here, or rather just stops.

Over many years I have read dozens of biographies of Presidents including Woodrow Wilson. None I know of leave out so much of their political record to focus on the man and the ethical principles that drive their decisions and their conduct as this biography. Any illusion that Woodrow Wilson was a confident, accepting and fair-minded gentleman disappears in this Cox biography. The glory from his gray hairs gone. Forevermore!

 

 

Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and his Disastrous Choice to Run Again

Jake Tapper, & Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and his Disastrous Choice to Run Again, (New York: Penguin Press, 2025), ISBN 9798217060672, $32.00 

 I was given a copy of Original Sin and read it wondering what it could tell me of the Biden saga that I did not already know? We know Joe Biden was 82 for the 2024 presidential election and would be 86 at the end of a second term. How much more information did I need since I could see he had aged just looking at him on television and then he accepted a debate with Trump, which ended any doubt about another term given the blank pauses and fumbling speech. In the Author’s Note they tell readers “Our only agenda is to present the disturbing reality of what happened in the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign in 2023-2024, as told to us by approximately two hundred people, including lawmakers and White House and campaign insiders, . . .” 

 The book has 19 chapters and runs 314 pages and I can testify the authors did an impressive job organizing the material from all those interviews and writing a clearly worded narrative. The primary story they tell shows Joe Biden, his wife Jill and his loyal White House advisors unable to face the very real doubts of a second term; there was denial and a loss of objectivity but nothing Joe Biden did could be called a cover up, a term that connotes legal misconduct. Since presidents have to be visible, their family and advisors have no duty to offer any doubts they might have to the public; the public must expect to make up their own mind. 

The authors interviewed Democratic and Republican office holders, party officials, pollsters and other journalists, both necessary and appropriate, but they added related personal and family history to the primary story. I tried to connect the discussion of the Biden family troubles of sons Beau, and Hunter and daughter Ashley, but that discussion always felt tacked onto their stated purpose: “Our only agenda is to present what happened in the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign.” 

 I found it difficult to construe the loss of son Beau to cancer and Hunter’s legal missteps as part of President Biden’s Decline, or his decision to press on for a second term. The discussion of these matters feels especially callus and unnecessary given just the facts the authors provide. They explain “The Plea Deal.” Hunter would plead guilty to evading $200,000 in income taxes and illegal possession of a fire arm. Biden opponents howled their objections and the federal judge in the case, Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee, refused to accept the plea deal, dragging out the case further. 

As I recall President Biden promised to allow his appointed Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to go ahead and prosecute Hunters case as part of his general promise to avoid interfering with federal law enforcement, but that was before losing the 2024 election and listening to Trump make repeated threats to him and his family with claims the Biden’s were part of an “organized crime family.” Recognizing the harassment Trump would create for his family he used his pardon power to protect them at the last moments of his term. In doing so, he was defensive and suggested toxic politics had something to do with the outcome of the case and his need to give blanket pardons. For this decision, the author’s make sweeping condemnation; they quote the prosecutor characterizing the pardons as “gratuitous and wrong” and that Merrick Garland was “tremendously disappointed” and that “To many Democrats, this was another ignominious act by a president who repeatedly put the interests of his family ahead of those of this party and country.” These conclusions feel sanctimonious and hypocritical given Trump’s pardons of hundreds of the January 6 felons. To some of us Hunter Biden’s crimes feel trivial compared to assaulting the U.S. Capital and refusing to accept the 2020 election results. 

I struggle to find a purpose for writing the story of Joe Biden’s Decline. A four page conclusion chapter asks “What if a president is unable to discharge their duties but doesn’t recognize that fact?” The authors admit those close to President Biden were always ready “to attest to his ability to make sound decisions if on his own schedule.” There is a suggestion Congress could legally require the president’s physician to certify to Congress the president is fit to serve, but so far in U.S. history only death assures a president will be unfit for office; there is no mention that anyone in Congress has offered such legislation. The authors mention several other questionable presidents, but offer no solution to future presidents and evaluating their qualification for office. 

 If there was a lessen for the future in the Joe Biden case I could not find it in Original Sin. I make note that both authors have worked in corporate media and wonder if they could keep their jobs writing a similar book about Donald Trump? .

Coming Up Short

Robert B. Reich, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2025), $30.00, ISBN 9780953803288

In his newest book, Coming Up Short, author Robert Reich offers readers a unique combination of personal memoir, U.S. history and policy discussion condensed into 350 pages. Born in 1946 he grew up as a founding member of the boomer generation. He lived through the Civil Rights and Vietnam War era while a student and then took an active role in politics, serving in judicial and administrative appointments during the Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations. While he never held political office, he made an unsuccessful run for governor of Massachusetts and served as an informal advisor to political candidates and office holders during his years as a professor in academia.

The narrative follows a rough chronology through his life divided into six parts that serve as chapters.  Since he met bullies growing up in South Salem, New York and attending Lewisboro elementary school, standing up to America’s rich corporate bullies becomes a theme guiding the narrative. Education at Dartmouth College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and Yale Law School and his work as a clerk to a federal judge, Assistant Solicitor General to Robert Bork, policy director at the Federal Trade Commission, and Secretary of Labor allowed him to meet dozens of future and current politicians and write opinion informed by personal experience.

Reich expresses his support for equal rights and social justice with the stories of his encounters with dozens of politicians and celebrities he met during his career. Boomers especially get a chance to reconsider old events in a new perspective. In 1965, as Dartmouth class president, he met Hillary Rodham, then a student at Wellesley College, and then introduced her to Bill Clinton six years later while they and Clarence Thomas were all Yale law students. While still a student  he was an intern for Robert Kennedy, then volunteered for the Gene McCarthy presidential campaign, traveled to England with Bill Clinton to be Rhodes scholars and figure out how to evade the Vietnam draft. He met Robert Bork while his law school student and then worked for him when Bork was Solicitor General. A 22-page saga of Bork’s career and the origins of the term “Borked” follow. Reich suggests Bork deserved better than he got from the press and Congress.

Reich titles Part III, The Giant U-Turn, that identifies a 1971 letter of attorney and later Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recommending a shift of corporate America to “mobilize for political combat.”  Before describing some of the resulting abuses and characteristics of corporate misconduct, Reich describes his work with the Carter administration and defends President Carter as not as bad as we think. In two other sections he discusses his relationship with John Kenneth Galbraith and a professorial tenure battle of his wife while at Harvard.

Part IV has eighty pages, the longest in the book, which Reich entitles Failure. It describes his work as a Democratic party advisor to Senator Gary Hart, Governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and Bill Clinton.  After Clinton wins the presidential election he becomes Secretary of Labor, which he hoped would allow him to pursue an agenda to benefit the working class. Reich describes his failed efforts as Secretary of Labor by narrating his bureaucratic policy battles with Secretary Robert Rubin and with stories of Alan Greenspan and others.

One of his failures occurred at a Bridgestone tire plant in Oklahoma where a failure to install safety cutoff switches had killed and injured workers and remained as a risk to injure more. Reich responded to the failure by seeking an emergency order to require installation of cutoff switches and imposed a $7.5 million fine. The company denied all wrong doing and threatened to close the plant. Reich backed down: “The bullies won. I am haunted by our failure. All I had considered was the moral superiority of my position and the thrill of the spectacle. I hadn’t imagined Bridgestone would take hostage the livelihoods of more than a thousand people.” He was haunted because he made the wrong decision to give in! He left the job at the end of Clinton’s first term to spend more time with his kids; a claim we can believe but readers might conclude, as I did, that he was worn out with Bill Clinton and his Wall Street tilt.

In the gathering storm, the title for Part V, readers get subtitled commentary on episodes of misconduct and cowardice by individuals in positions of leadership. Reich quotes from a speech he made to the Democratic Leadership Council where he warned them of a two tiered society of winners and losers. After the warning come stories of people who promoted or acquiesced in the two-tier society: Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barak Obama, Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin and others.

About midway through Part V Reich switches to the aftermath of the Bush recession to discuss the tea partiers, occupiers and other angry people.”  There is special mention of the cowardice of Clinton and Obama: “Both Clinton and Obama stood by as corporations busted trade unions, backbone of the working class.” Recall Obama did not prosecute the Bush era banking looters. Reich recounts visits to Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, and North Carolina and the anti-establishment rage he found there. He goes on to discuss the end of the American Dream and the end of the Republican party as a political party. The final subsection offers the five elements that make fascism. He finishes with “Americans can preserve our democracy and share our prosperity only by attacking and countering concentrated wealth and the political corruption that accompanies it.” 

Part VI, The Long Game, ends the book with a smorgasbord of personal stories, a few suggestions, and a tiny slice of optimism. One story was his failed campaign for Massachusetts governor. As a political advisor he thought he knew elective politics but running for office taught him the essential personality traits he does not have: narcissist, extrovert, method actor, thick skin, and also avoid consultants and be respectful of media. He concluded “Running for office made me even more keenly aware of the role and responsibility of mainstream media in a democracy in danger of coming apart.”

Other stories describe an aborted appearance with “Dr. Phil,” his friendship and admiration for Bernie Sanders, the pleasure of seeing and remembering some of his students. The last pages have some broad suggestions for restoring capitalism, reclaiming patriotism, creating better workplaces, and sharing profits. The book ends with thoughts on growing old, 79, and the need for the younger generation to take over and restore democracy.

The Reich book is built on the same ethical principles as similar books and commentary by others like Arlie Russel Hochschild, Heather Cox Richardson, and recent books of Steven Brill and David Leonhardt. However, his 60 year career in politics and academia required him to confront an unusually long list of political disputes and meet an unusually long list of people who became colleagues, friends and adversaries. Unlike political memoirs in my experience Reich agonizes over his failures. Unlike corporate media he calls evil by its true name: campaign finance is bribery, Trump Republicans are liars, enablers and accessories to crimes against the constitution. Anita Hill was right, Justice Alito is the most cognitively dishonest justice since Roger Taney, Democrats Al Gore, Bill Clinton and Barak Obama are cowards; the Democratic party has failed for decades to protect the working class, and more.

In a section titled “My Illicit Affair” Reich describes his friendship with Republican Senator Allan Simpson of Wyoming, a political opponent he admired for “his sincerity and passion for democracy.”  Still friends in 2016, Reich asked why more Republicans weren’t speaking out against Trump.

“They’re scared,” he said.

“Scared of Trump?”

“No,” he said, lowering his voice. “They’re scared of the kind of people Trump is attracting and what he’s bringing out in them.”

“You mean they’re scared of being physically harmed?”

“Friend it only takes one nut case?”

Enough said.