Hello and welcome to This Day, a history show from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 26, 1970, we are at the White House for a ceremony with President Richard Nixon and a group of

labor leaders. The 22 labor leaders representing some

300,000 union workers present Nixon with some ceremonial hard hats and there's an important

photo op for all of them. But the leaders aren't there to commemorate a new contract or advocate

for better working conditions or union support from the administration. They are there,

in fact, for a photo

op and to fan the culture wars. And Nixon is more than happy to play along. He remarked, as he

was surrounded by these guys in hard hats, that, quote, labor leaders and people from middle

America still have character and guts and a bit of patriotism. And gosh, does that

language sound familiar as Republicans have continued to use that idealized version of industrial

workers to create this real America versus fake America divide, even as their policies

towards labor and unions in particular have felt a little suspect over the decades. But really, in this moment,

you can see this divide opening up, the labor and cultural wars bursting into the open,

and it wasn't just an isolated incident. So here to discuss this moment when the Dems started

to lose the labor culture wars, and we'll get into the so-called hard hat riots of 1970.

Here, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.

Hello there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

Wearing your hard hats I see on this taping, just like real Americans, you know, salt

of the earth types.

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