Politics & Power Quote by James P. Hoffa

Anxiety does most of the rhetorical work here, and Hoffa knows it. "What's going on in this country?" isn’t a genuine question so much as a siren: a signal that the listener’s unease is rational, shared, and urgent. He follows by casting unions not as one interest group among many, but as the last line of defense "against those trends" - deliberately vague language that lets every grievance (offshoring, wage stagnation, precarious work, corporate consolidation) snap into place without him naming a single policy detail that could be challenged.

The sharpest move is the paradox of a "robust American economy" that still needs protection. Hoffa is arguing that headline growth is a mirage if it’s decoupled from living standards. That’s a classic labor critique sharpened for an era when GDP rises while households tread water. The phrase "insulate" is telling: he’s not asking for isolationism as an ideology, but as a practical barrier, like weatherproofing a house that keeps losing heat. It frames globalization as an external force, almost a natural disaster, rather than a set of choices made by corporations and lawmakers.

Then comes the emotional climax: a "global economy" that "seems to want to devour our standard of living". "Devour" turns trade and capital flows into predation, shifting the debate from efficiency to survival. The subtext is a warning to political elites: if they keep treating workers as collateral damage of global competition, they’ll get a backlash - and unions want to be the organized channel for it, not the scapegoat.