Romney’s Supporters Want Him To Go For Obama’s Jugular

Just as we saw in 2008, the conservative base doesn't want to hear their nominee saying that the President is a basically decent man.

McKay Coppins followed Mitt Romney on his tour of Ohio this week and noticed at least one respect in which the candidate is out of step with his more diehard supporters:

TOLEDO, Ohio — Mitt Romney covered a lot of territory Wednesday — rhetorically and geographically — as he crisscrossed Ohio delivering stump speeches that emphasized, alternately, trade, debt, energy, and job creation. But there’s one thing he said at every campaign stop.

“Look, I know the president cares about America and the people of this country,” he told the roughly 3,500 supporters gathered in a convention center here. “He just doesn’t know how to help them. I do. I’ll get this country going again.”

(…)

Many of the partisans who filled the rallies didn’t like hearing their nominee assert that Obama “cares about America.”

“Actually, when he came out and said Obama cared for Americans, I stood back here and said, ‘No he doesn’t!'” said Dan Berger, a welder from Oregon, Ohio. “Obama’s for changing America, he’s bringing America down, he’s not pushing America forward. So I disagree with Mitt on that one.”

Berger’s wife, Pamela, an outspoken conservative who periodically shouted, “Oh, hell yeah!” throughout the rally, shared her husband’s unease with Romney’s conciliatory words.

“I think Obama cares about certain America, like his constituency in the unions… he cares about his crony capitalist buddies, he cares about Warren Buffett,” she said. “As along as they go along with the line, they’re going to be taken care of. There are certain Americans he does care about. But I don’t think he can look at the average, hard-working struggling American and say Obama cares about them. No.”

As the article goes on to note, there have been times when Romney has taken a more aggressive tone toward the President by saying that he wants to turn America into Europe, that he’s pursuing a “radical” agenda that would “fundamentally transform” America, and by alleging that he has gone around the world apologizing for America even though that’s a patently untrue charge. Even then, though, one got the impression that Romney’s supporters wanted him to get even more aggressive against the President, and perhaps even stroll into the memes that the more radical elements of the right have been pushing about the President for the past four years or more. Ever since the “47 percent” video came out there, it’s been apparent that Romney has gone back to referring to the President as a man who meant well put was “in over his head.” I can only assume that the main reason this has happened is because the campaign has tested this issue in polling and possibly even focus groups and they’ve discovered that, among the independent voters that Romney needs to win over if he’s going to have a chance in a state like Ohio, the aggressive tone doesn’t work at all because that isn’t how most Americans view the President.

This balance between trying to please the base and running a campaign that can speak to independents isn’t new at all. John McCain faced the same problem during his campaign when he was being exhorted by outside groups, and his own running mate, to attack then Senator Obama more aggressively by adopting the memes being pushed by people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. The entire controversy came to a head at a rally in Minnesota in mid-October:

Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was “an Arab.”

Each time he tried to cool the crowd, he was rewarded with a round of boos.

“I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States,” McCain told a supporter at a town hall meeting in Minnesota who said he was “scared” of the prospect of an Obama presidency and of who the Democrat would appoint to the Supreme Court.

“Come on, John!” one audience member yelled out as the Republican crowd expressed dismay at their nominee. Others yelled “liar,” and “terrorist,” referring to Obama.

McCain passed his wireless microphone to one woman who said, “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him and he’s not, he’s not uh — he’s an Arab. He’s not — ” before McCain retook the microphone and replied:

“No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”

Here’s the video of that exchange, and you can just see the look on McCain’s face when he realizes the monster that has been unleashed:

McCain also reportedly personally squashed efforts by some who wanted to use the Jeremiah Wright issue in the campaign in the closing weeks as some kind of last desperate attempt to take down Obama. The fact that McCain lost, though, was taken as proof in some quarters that this strategy was a failure and that it was a mistake to forgo attacking the President on things like Wright and his alleged ties to people like Bill Ayers. Those people are now an even bigger part of the Republican base than they were in 2008, and that’s probably why we have seen Romney be more aggressive in his attacks on President Obama at times.  At the same time, though, there are certain lines that the Romney campaign isn’t crossing in those attacks, and that’s likely frustrating those on the right who think that all Romney needs to do is bring up the issue of the President’s past and  the American people will see the light and vote him out of office.

There’s little reason, however, to believe that such a strategy would work, however. As has been noted many times in the past, leaving issues of job approval aside, the President generally benefits from the fact that the American public likes the guy. Demonizing him the way that the hard right wants to do isn’t going to work quite simply because it’s inconsistent with everything that a large segment, indeed a majority I would assert, of the American people believe that they’ve learned by observing this President over the past four years. If anything, taking such a tack is more likely to blow back and hurt Republicans than it is to hurt the President. In fact, we already have evidence that this is exactly what would happen:

As she was campaigning across the country in 2008, much of Sarah Palin’s message involved attacking the President in a manner that clearly resonated very well with those on the right who believed the worst about Obama. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Obama’s ties to “radicals” in Chicago were mentioned in pretty much every one of her stump speeches. Watching the polls, though, you could see that it was having absolutely no negative impact on the Obama/Biden ticket, while it did seem to have a negative impact most specifically of public perception of Sarah Palin. The attacks also arguably had an influence on independent voters in Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana, states that had been reliably Republican but went Democratic for the first time in decades. If the attacks didn’t work four years ago when the public still knew very little about Barack Obama, why would anyone think that it would work now after the President has been a near daily presence in the news for going on five years?

If he continues slipping in the polls, the calls for Romney to get more aggressive against the President are going to become louder and his insistence that the President is a generally decent man who just got the job wrong are going get booed even more loudly than they were in Ohio this week. If he listens to them, though, he’s likely to do himself more harm then good.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. A says:

    I think he should just lie. Just make it up as he goes along. The base will love it, and if the lies are outrageous enough there’s no way to fact check them. Remember, that campaign isn’t going to be dictated to by the fact checkers.

  2. reid says:

    Obama doesn’t care about average, hard-working Americans, but Romney does? This glimpse into the deranged wingnut bubble is disturbing….

  3. mantis says:

    In 2008 they forgot to mention that the real influence of Wright and Ayers (and assorted other bogeymen) would not actually be felt until Obama’s second term. Because…..ummm….ACORN Alinksy Black Panthers!

  4. @A: Isn’t that their current strategy?

    (Or did I miss the sarcasm?) 🙂

  5. Scott says:

    I remember finding myself sympathetic with McCain when he dealt with that woman and would’ve been more likely to vote for him. Unfortunately, he had Palin.

  6. john personna says:

    Romney and the Republicans are running on empty. Their best arguments rely on you not asking the next question, not thinking it through. Morning Joe says “Democrats had complete control of the government for 2 years” (not exactly true) “and they couldn’t fix the economy.” That’s his best “political” argument. But it really, really, depends on you not asking “how can you fix the economy in 2 years?” That “Obama will make us Europe” is the same kind of thing. Stop there. Don’t ask “how exactly?” Pfft.

  7. Jen says:

    @A: I don’t know if you are kidding or not, but on today’s Politico Playbook, the first story is about Romney’s “attack plan” for the first debate, wherein he will suggest that the President is lying. http://tiny.cc/po1alw

    Bleh.

  8. bookdragon01 says:

    McCain was so tarred by Bush and the GOP brand that he had little chance, but – right up until he picked Palin – I was pretty content with the possibility that he might become POTUS. He might have lost, but kept his soul.

  9. Tsar Nicholas says:

    Well, let’s not confuse the sort of people who for obvious reasons get quoted in concerned-trolling articles by the liberal media with the rest of the conservative and Republican body politic.

    For every talk radio aficionado out there who’s foaming out the mouth, twitching, baying at the moon, and acting out, wanting from Romney red meat, dammit, there at least are several other people who don’t necessarily think the same way, or at all the same way.

    Think about it from this angle. BuzzFeed’s entire audience is, uh, what, exactly? 100,000? 200,000? More? Less? On Nov. 6th over 125 million people are going to cast ballots. Right around half of them give or take are going to vote (gulp) for Romney. That’s a lot of people. And it doesn’t really matter whether Romney keeps doing what he’s been doing or throws a few morsels of red meat.

    On a percentage basis very few people on the right side of the spectrum give a rat’s ass what Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin say or think. Even fewer of them ever have heard of Michelle Malkin.

    Sometimes we political junkies need to break out of the cocoon in order to see daylight. There’s a whole other world out there.

  10. Motopilot says:

    Obama only “cares about his crony capitalist buddies”? What are those capitalist buddies going to do as Obama is transforming America into something akin to socialist Europe?
    Good grief. These people are just spewing out disassociated strings of buzzwords and psycho babble they hear on Fox. All emotion, no logic.

  11. Gromitt Gunn says:

    How exactly is one beholden to both crony capitalism and unions at the same time?

  12. Facebones says:

    I love that the solution to Romney’s woes (as proposed by the hardcore base) is to alienate every last undecided voter.

    “If only Romney just yelled ‘BLACKETY BLACK MOOSLIM’ those sheeple might hear it above the lamestream media!!!!”

    As a liberal democrat, I whole-heartedly agree that Romney should do just that. Especially during the first debate!

  13. @Gromitt Gunn: The same question could be raised about how the woman doesn’t seem to realize that the defense industry that has bought and paid for Romney’s (and the GOP as a whole’s) campaign is the very definition of crony capitalism.

  14. Nikki says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    On a percentage basis very few people on the right side of the spectrum give a rat’s ass what Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin say or think. Even fewer of them ever have heard of Michelle Malkin.

    Sometimes we political junkies need to break out of the cocoon in order to see daylight. There’s a whole other world out there.

    And because they don’t/can’t/won’t take this advice, Romney and the right now find themselves facing the onslaught of an Obama landslide.

  15. mantis says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    So your basic argument is that the campaigns and candidates have no influence over voters? Interesting. Stupid, but interesting.

  16. legion says:

    The Brilliant Minds behind the GOP have spent more than a decade cultivating their base into a hard-core, dedicated group of poorly-educated, highly-religious, deeply scared people who are gullible enough to believe _anything_ the party line tells them, no matter how baldly ridiculous.

    – Obama is both a radical Muslim _and_ a puppet of his old Pastor Jeremiah Wright? Sure!
    – Communists in the 60s built a planned future for a black Manchurian Candidate to become President of the US by manufacturing a fake Hawaiian birth record? Definitely!
    – Cutting taxes on the rich, but pledging to keep government revenue the same, somehow won’t raise taxes on the poor & middle class? Obviously!

    Now these red-meat-eaters are the only people who still support them. And as McCain found out, they’re too stupid and bloodthirsty to moderate their views for the general elections. They put themselves on a dead-end path to irrelevancy. My heart bleeds.

  17. Rafer Janders says:

    @john personna:

    That “Obama will make us Europe” is the same kind of thing. Stop there. Don’t ask “how exactly?”

    If making us into Europe means we’ll all get six weeks of paid vacation a year, I have to say, maybe we should let him do it.

  18. michael reynolds says:

    God help me, I do love to watch the flailing. I feel almost as if it’s a strain of sadism in me, and it’s probably reprehensible. But it is entertaining, isn’t it?

    This is what happens when you see life through the lens of stupid. Through the lens of bigotry. If you cannot understand your enemy you have a harder time defeating him. And from Day #1 the GOP has gotten Mr. Obama wrong. Wildly, absurdly and hysterically wrong. The GOP just needed so desperately for Obama to be a radical “other.” And he was always a moderate “us.”

    Well, suck on it, GOP. And I say that in full acknowledgment that schadenfreude is a less than admirable feeling. And yet, suck on it, you stupid, close-minded, bigoted, brainwashed creeps. The beating you’ve got coming is so very richly deserved.

  19. Rafer Janders says:

    @Gromitt Gunn:

    How exactly is one beholden to both crony capitalism and unions at the same time?

    Because shut up, that’s how.

  20. J-Dub says:

    @michael reynolds: Are your books this entertaining? Maybe I should check them out.

  21. Me Me Me says:

    But the only jugular within his reach is his own.

  22. legion says:

    @Tsar Nicholas:

    On a percentage basis very few people on the right side of the spectrum give a rat’s ass what Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin say or think. Even fewer of them ever have heard of Michelle Malkin.

    What? How thick are you? I’ll grant you Levin and Malkin (outside of the conserva-blog readers), but Rush is estimated to have about 15mil listeners, with Hannity, Savage, and Beck not far behind. Those radio shows, and Fox News, are pretty much the _only_ sources of news for the entire GOP base. Their entire world view comes from those sources. Is it any wonder they’re all pants-pissingly scared all the time?

  23. Scott says:

    @michael reynolds:

    I feel almost as if it’s a strain of sadism in me, and it’s probably reprehensible.

    Yes, I can feel your deep shame.

  24. Jr says:

    @john personna: Off topic, but I wanted to throw my remote at the TV.

    Scarborough had the nerve to say Obama got everything he wanted his first two years?

    Jesus…..talk about revisionist history.

  25. C. Clavin says:

    Mitt should definitely go for the jugular.
    In fact…who better to help him than Sarah Palin?
    And Michelle Bachmann.

  26. Gustopher says:

    Romney should go for it. Be the bizarre, freakish, insane radical the base wants him to be.

    Not because it will help him win — it won’t, and winning is probably out of reach now anyway — but because it will help the party in the long term. When Romney loses with his current approach, the lesson learned will be that he wasn’t bizarre, freakish or insane enough, and 2016 will be filled with nuts that make Herman Cain look reasonable.

    Romney cannot control whether he will win or lose. He will lose. But, if he goes down in a flame of Tea Party fervor, he can control the lessons drawn, and it will begin to set the Republican party on the track of something other than opposing for the purpose of opposing.

    We need two functional parties in this country.

  27. Jr says:

    One thing I love hearing from Conservatives is that “Romney should take to Obama in the debates.”……..yeah like The President isn’t going to be their to rebuke him.

  28. Woody says:

    Should present trends hold, the President will be re-elected by a comfortable margin.

    What the GOP does after this is of paramount importance. Should they go further right, I believe it would result in a further, perhaps greater, defeat in 2016. This would provide the Democratic Party with the ability to establish and implement a great deal of their policy preferences (starting with ACA).

    However, should the Republicans moderate – some of their policies, they will actually consolidate a lot of their hard-earned gains since the 1980s.

    The great question, then, is whether or not the conservative media structures – which individually profits from not compromising – will accommodate or strangle the needed changes.

  29. C. Clavin says:

    The ridiculous thing is that the Obama they want Romney to attack is fictitious. That Obama does not exist. He’s the guy sitting in Clint Eastwoods chair…which is the perfect metaphor of the GOP…and old white guy ranting to an imaginary charachter.

  30. Anderson says:

    I would be worried if Romney finally tacked to the center.

    I would not be worried at all if he went all-out on red meat for the base.

  31. C. Clavin says:

    @ Anderson…

    “…I would be worried if Romney finally tacked to the center…”

    With 40 days left…I think it’s too late for that.
    Minds have been made up.
    Voting is under way.
    Obama is not taking his foot off the gas.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=B9xCCaseop4

  32. PJ says:

    @Anderson:

    I would be worried if Romney finally tacked to the center.

    I wouldn’t. It’s only 40 days left and the Democrats have a massive collection of statements by Romney. If he tacked to the center, the Democrats would paint him as a flip-flopper, an etch-a-sketch, and conservatives would argue that he has capitulated.

    I’m not worried.

  33. Moosebreath says:

    @Jr:

    You forget, conservatives think that Obama is helpless to respond to any unexpected attackes, as they won’t be what his teleprompter has already scripted for him.

  34. @michael reynolds:

    I feel almost as if it’s a strain of sadism in me, and it’s probably reprehensible. But it is entertaining, isn’t it?

    It’s only sadism if you’re the one causing the suffering. This is schadenfruede, the vicarious enjoyment of suffering you had nothing to do with.

  35. Anderson says:

    I take y’all’s point about timing, but Obama doesn’t have that huge a lead, either.

    Silver is probably right that it’s 80-20 for Obama, but those 20% chances have a way of coming up, oh, 1 time in 5. (Everything I know about probability, I learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons.)

  36. Anderson says:

    Oh, and see this:

    “Billionaire financier George Soros is donating $1 million to Priorities USA, a super PAC supporting President Obama’s re-election, according to the New York Times.”

    He won’t miss the money, but I doubt Soros is dropping $1M to win an election *he* thinks is already won.

  37. PJ says:

    @Anderson:

    Silver is probably right that it’s 80-20 for Obama, but those 20% chances have a way of coming up, oh, 1 time in 5. (Everything I know about probability, I learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons.)

    If the probability of a Romney win is 20% then Romney would need 3 redos to reach about 50%. He only gets once chance.

    (Currently at 538, Romney has a 227% chance of winning, but Obama has a 337% chance…)

  38. Mike says:

    @reid: if only someone could find a tape of Romney saying it’s not his job to care about “those” people. where can we find such a tape? if only it existed. That might convince her.

  39. C. Clavin says:

    @ Anderson:

    “…He won’t miss the money, but I doubt Soros is dropping $1M to win an election *he* thinks is already won…”

    I don’t think that anyone thinks this thing is “won”. Like I said…Obama does not seem to be taking hi foot off the gas. But look at the swing state polling. Romney’s path is incredibly narrow.

  40. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    In the old days, when journalists were reporters, they had a saying: “if your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

    John Hawkins collected a set of stories that showed Mitt Romney being an incredibly decent, compassionate, caring guy. Anyone ever pulled together a similar list for Obama?

  41. legion says:

    @Anderson:

    (Everything I know about probability, I learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons.)

    I never would have guessed that from your avatar 🙂

  42. legion says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13: I see you trying to derail the conversation by bringing up completely unrelated topics you think you have an advantage with, but frankly, your debate-fu really sucks.

  43. mantis says:

    @Jay Tea’s Threadjacking Puppet Jenos Idanian #13:

    In the old days, when journalists were reporters, they had a saying: “if your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

    <John Hawkins collected a set of stories that showed Mitt Romney being an incredibly decent, compassionate, caring guy.

    Who checked those stories out?

  44. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    My profoundest apologies. I meant to quote Doug at the beginning of my comment:

    If he continues slipping in the polls, the calls for Romney to get more aggressive against the President are going to become louder and his insistence that the President is a generally decent man who just got the job wrong are going get booed even more loudly than they were in Ohio this week.

    That’s what I was responding to. Again, my apologies for not making the connection more clear.

  45. Steve V says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:
    But didn’t Romney do all that compassionate stuff back when he was a liberal?

  46. mantis says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    That’s what I was responding to. Again, my apologies for not making the connection more clear.

    Doug was referencing Mitt Romney’s statements. So you are insisting that people fact check Mitt Romney when he says that President Obama is a generally decent man?

  47. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @mantis: So you are insisting that people fact check Mitt Romney when he says that President Obama is a generally decent man?

    Insisting? Heaven forfend. Suggesting? Absolutely.

    I know you were trying to spin it from “is Obama a decent guy?” to “is Mitt Romney telling the truth,” but the end result is the same — just a couple of stories showing that Obama is a nice, decent guy.

    Just a couple. Two or three would be quite enough.

  48. mantis says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    I know you were trying to spin it

    Spin it how? Doug said that Romney calls a decent man. You said that Romney’s contention should be verified. That’s not spin. That’s accuracy.

    just a couple of stories showing that Obama is a nice, decent guy.

    Ask Romney. He’s the one claiming it. Maybe John Hawkins will make a list for him.

  49. mantis says:

    @mantis:

    Calls Obama a decent man, it should read.

  50. Barbara Carson says:

    @reid: My sentiments exactly

  51. An Interested Party says:

    Just a couple. Two or three would be quite enough.

    Sorry sweetie, but that evil liberal socialist media cabal has already convinced many people that the President is a nice guy, as evidenced by his personal approval ratings…meanwhile, that supposedly really nice Mr. Romney has proven himself to be an even bigger stiff than John Kerry (now that’s really saying something)…so all the paeans of praise from townhall or whatever other loony right wing site you might want to site won’t help your man…better luck in 2016…

  52. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    I’m sold. Mitt Romney needs to stop saying Obama’s a decent guy, because it’s just not true, and Romney should stop lying.

    I used to say and think the same thing, but it’s time to come clean. Obama’s just not a decent guy who occasionally gets a bit too chummy with bad people. He’s simply a bad person, and we should not say otherwise.

  53. mantis says:

    @Jay Tea’s dimwitted alter ego Jenos Idanian #13:

    You run with that. Best of luck.

  54. michael reynolds says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    It no longer matters what Mr. Romney has to say about anything.

  55. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @mantis: So much for the “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything” theory.

    You wanna talk about candidates? Apparently not.

    You wanna engage in insults and personal digs and whatnot? Go frick yourself. Rusty chainsaw optional.

    But isn’t it remarkable how no one wants to come up with anecdotes about how Obama’s a nice, decent, caring, considerate, compassionate guy.

    Not a single one.

  56. mantis says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    Not very remarkable that people don’t jump when you tell them to. Everybody knows your game.

  57. al-Ameda says:

    The trouble is, if Romney goes really negative with Obama he is going to get nothing out of it, because Obama is – with the exception of most Republicans and other dyspeptic non-normal voters – generally liked as a person. That was not the case in the GOP primaries, when if Mitt went negative he was doing so with respect to guys like Santorum and Gingrich who are generally not liked by normal voters.

    Going negative will remind everyone what an imperious and arrogant corporate manager Romney really is – the kind of guy who would fire his wife or children, or even you, on a whim.

  58. Scott O says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13: Ask yourself this. Why does someone feel that it’s necessary to write an article about how Romney is a decent and caring man?

  59. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @al-Ameda: Obama is – with the exception of most Republicans and other dyspeptic non-normal voters – generally liked as a person.

    Why? Why is he liked? What is likable about him?

  60. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Gustopher: I wish that would work, but the base will come to the conclusion that Romney was a RINO who tried to fake conservatism, but the electorate saw through it.

    And if you don’t believe me, just ask Eric and Jan.

  61. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @mantis: Got it. Romney’s a decent guy, Obama’s still a cypher, I’m all your bete noires rolled up in one, and you’re a douchenozzle who prefers personal attacks to actual substance.

    That about sum it up, sport?

  62. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker: Based on what I saw down thread, I should add Jenos to the list.

  63. ernieyeball says:

    @Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker: So down thread means the comments that were made prior to later comments. Yet as I view my computer screen down thread is up towards the first comment after the post written by one of OTB’s political sages.
    To restate, down thread is up and up thread is down.
    Sounds rather Orwellian to me.

  64. anjin-san says:

    Why? Why is he liked?

    I have no doubt that the concept of someone being well liked is genuinely confusing to you.

  65. An Interested Party says:

    Watching Jenos fall apart is about as fun as watching Romney fall apart…so sad for both of them that there are about to be big time losers…

  66. al-Ameda says:

    @Jenos Idanian #13:

    Why? Why is he liked? What is likable about him?

    For one thing, he (Obama) didn’t make a personal fortune by acquiring companies and firing American workers.