Stop the Presses: Republicans Despise Free Trade... Do Their Candidates?
This is the moment I've been waiting for. Year after year, the Wall Street Journal pumps up the virtues of "free trade" through its own editorials, submissions on the op-ed page from various luminaries, rants against anyone who dares to challenge the orthodoxy and slanted news coverage of trade-related matters.
Now, despite all their efforts, the Journal reported last week that the vast majority of Republicans completely disagree with them. I'm tempted to do a victory dance, but I'd rather see the Republican presidential candidates respond. They have a chance at Tuesday's debate in Dearborn, Michigan, a state devastated by the job losses that result from failed U.S. trade policy. And they have a chance to listen to the concerns of voters in Iowa at our "Keep It Made in America" Town Hall meeting on October 17 that will showcase the growing bipartisan chorus for more accountability in our trade policy: challenging the currency and subsidy cheating employed by countries like China, making sure our imports are safe, and negotiating deals that actually improve our balance of trade, rather than worsening it.
Now I'm waiting for the next wave of stories, the ones that ask how Republicans could arrive at this position. Have they failed to read basic economic texts? Have they succumbed to the jingoism of Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan? Do they get upset when the Ivy League professors tell them that all Americans need is more education in order to have job security? Or do they merely think Tom Friedman is annoying and want to oppose anything he says?
I have a different explanation, one that is more plausible. We have an enormous overall trade deficit and a record trade deficit with China. Even a declining dollar and the Chinese product recall wave won't put much of a dent in it. This deficit -- and the massive dollar reserves China has built up -- impacts all sorts of things in the U.S.: jobs, interest rates, the safety of our food and consumer products, our national security, and the flexibility we have in diplomacy.
Republican voters, like most Americans, want our government to be accountable, to provide security, and to encourage responsibility. With our current trade policy, they strike out on all three counts.
Unsafe imports arrive on our tables and in our toy boxes because U.S. trade policy and regulators favors cheap and fast imports over safe ones.
Many manufacturers and farmers face overseas competition that is subsidized -- unfairly -- while the Administration often turns a blind eye, costing us profits, jobs and income, and ripping at the social fabric of the heartland.
Despite lots of evidence that existing trade deals don't work particularly well, the Congress is asked to approve even more of them without a serious reassessment of the model.
The offshoring of manufacturing has reduced America's ability to supply our military and to ensure the smooth operation of our economy. Has anyone bothered to think how a Chinese blockade of Taiwan would impact our commerce, given our dependence on Asian-made computer and electronic goods? It could be a crushing blow.
Adam Smith and David Ricardo -- two of the Journal's favorites -- never really contemplated a world of globalized, stateless corporations that could shift production around at will. But that's the world we now live in. That's why it is time for the Republicans running for President to decide whether they want to embrace 19th century theory or prepare for 21st century reality. We know where the voters are -- in the here and now.
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Public campaign financing would go a long way in solving most, if not all of our problems.
I know it's not sexy, but it should be everyone's, (Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, Independent) number one issue (or at least a close second).
We hardly ever talk about it.
I'll see your campaign finance and raise you monetary policy reform. The only force more destructive than the privatization of our democratic process is the privatization of our central banking system. Private military is a close third. Governments must be 100% accountable for their management of money, elections, and force.
Most Americans don't get this unless it hurts them personally and then it is too late.
And the politicians know this. The government does not have our best interest in mind, we have to decipher it all ourselves and who has the time chasing the mighty dollar just to survive? People won't wake up in time for the 2008 election but they will get in 2012.
I can't wait for millions of more Americans to really feel it...and they will. There is no pleasure in telling people "I told you so" but nothing else works with ignorant people
Free trade is a right-wing policy. In the history of humankind, no right-wing policy has ever worked.
I can see that you don't have a clue as to what you are talking about
"Leading econmists" and wine connoiseurs are masters at trying to sell you something you find innately distasteful and explaining that your ignorance inhibits your ability to appreciate the complexities of their product.
If this country had practical free speech, we could have refuted this b.s. in 4 minutes when it first surfaced 25 years ago. But with this pay-to-play communication environment, the fraudsters are the only ones free to spin a fairy tale world for most voters, day in and day out.
So, great. So now the mainstream who have been voting themselves off the island for a quarter century have finally lost enough to become suspicious.
Has anybody got any clue how we could contact them in enough numbers in time to do something positive about it?
If the United States had free speech, we could have refuted this when it first surfaced b.s. 25 years ago in 4 minutes. But with a pay-to-play communication environment, the fraudsters are the ones free to spin a fairy tale world for voters day in and day out.
So, great. So now the mainstream who have been voting themselves off the island for a quarter century have finally lost enough to become suspicious.
Has anybody got any clue how we could contact them in enough numbers in time to do something positive about it?
Free trade, like the term free market are illusions as long as big government institutions like the Commerce Department are involved in what should be private business affairs.
I watched Robert Reich, Clinton-era spokesman for the new liberalism, expound on the virtues of free trade as he admitted that the unemployed, anchorless peasants are feeling unease. Nonetheless, free trade is the best thing that ever happened to this desolate, bereft country.
The ordinary Republicans, Democrats and some independents now realize that they have been sold a bill of goods over the last 27 years. The educated class of both right and left has sold out and joined forces with the super rich and monopolistic oligarchies. Additionally, the public servant class is multiplying and thriving on the misfortune of our people. There is little left to do but retreat into the inner citadel of asceticism and tranquillity and leave the unacceptable empirical world to strike its own deal with a naive and devestated middle class.
And our ignominous candidates assure us that the stock market is rising, therefore, all is well or will be well when free trading, Wall Street embracing, billionaire adulating and upper class supported and supporting Democrats take command.
The Ancient Chinese exploited-peasants turned towards the monastery of Buddhism with the promise of a fantastic hereafter. If all else fails, maybe that is a way we might go. Ironically, our fierce Chinese mercantelistic foes have turned dramatically away from Buddhism and other otherworldly schemes as they grow and develop in competence and confidence as they create and produce those necessities in modern factories that we have been consuming with borrowed monies.
Our modern American capitalism has the capability to escape the laws of nature and the place of economics in nature. So, we are told by our modern oracles and experts.
If you and I were watching the same show, Pat Buchanan was also present. (It irks me when I'm forced to agree with Pat Buchanan.)
I'm a person who is tired of hearing the right-wing mantra to everything that has gone wrong with America under Bush: "Clinton did it."
However, this time I'm the first one to yell, "Clinton did it" regarding all this wonderful "free trade" NAFTA garbage, as I personally witness the evaporation of the middle class in this country. Soon, the USA will consist of nothing more than rich folks and their Mexican slaves.
This is what makes me especially skeptical of continuing the Bush-Clint
I either read or heard on TV somewhere that Bush has been giving hints to Hillary as to how she can keep American troops in Iraq longer. Her primary focus certainly hasn't been to end the Iraq war quickly, according to her own recent words.
I've also been a bit uncomfortable with Daddy Bush's "adoption" of Bill Clinton. All in all, these families seem to have grown a bit too chummy.
Has Hillary Clinton already been selected to be our next President, and, once again, does it even matter if any of us actually votes?
I want to hear a courageous debate moderator ask each candidate of both parties about his/her views regarding the PNAC and the "New World Order."
I have a novel idea: Why don't the leaders of the USA fix our broken infrastructures, secure our borders, airfields, ports, nuclear facilities, etc., fix the broken NAFTA machine so that the middle class may once again exist in the USA, and do the "moral" thing of offering all Americans equal access to healthcare? Why don't we lead by example so other countries will voluntarily choose to be like us because they WANT to be because they respect us, and not because we bomb them into submission in order to shove "freedom" down their unwilling and unaccepting throats?
"Do they get upset when the Ivy League professors tell them that all Americans need is more education in order to have job security?"
I get upset when economics tells us more supply lowers prices. I am sure Ivy League professors
say that more people should got to college since that will increase the size of their classes and their job security.
In fact college grads are making coffee in Stabucks and working construction. No matter how much education you get there are not jobs,
unless the education they mean is to learn Chinese and move to the Asian Rim.
There is no free trade, only a decision as to who controls the trade cartels, government or private cabals.
Ron Paul is the only candidate even suggesting a move toward free trade. NAFTA, CAFTA is not free trade. NAFTA is a system of using slave labor.
"the Wall Street Journal pumps up the virtues of "free trade"
the vast majority of Republicans completely disagree with them.
Now I'm waiting for the next wave of stories, the ones that ask how Republicans could arrive at this position."
It's all well and good that apparently some Republicans are questioning the virtues of give away Trade Legislation but I didn't see a reference to the Democratic Party's embrace of this same fiasco. Don't all of the DLC Centrists take money from Wall Street? Didn't Hillary swing by Silicon Valley for contributions while making promises of unlimited H1B visas? Why aren't the Republican Lite Democrats mentioned here?
Do you find it interesting that Pat Buchanan and Sherrod Brown share the same views on this topic? Didn't the Democratic "Leadership" in the Congress just sneak in a Trade Bill that was opposed by many of the Rank and File? It seems that the polar ends of the Political Spectrum are the only ones interested in protecting America from the bought off Center.
"That's why it is time for the Republicans running for President to decide whether they want to embrace 19th century theory or prepare for 21st century reality."
You might ask the same question of the Democrats running for President. You might also ask them their views on allowing 12 million undocumented aliens to continue to take jobs that USED to pay decent wages to Americans. We've seen the Senate Democrats answer and it was YES.
The DLC[Democrats Lemmings Council] is the Democratic Party branch of the Republican Party.Seve
Pew Research Center found different results last week, most Americans still support trade.
http://pew
Dollars to donuts, most of the people polled would misunderstand "free trade" in practical terms if not altogether.
elkabong, you're correct about free trade. Free trade is about moving capital FREELY that the only free in 'free trade'.It'
Hey maybe the republican sheep are finally looking up! I guess that $300 doesn't make up for trying to compete with slave labor huh? "Free trade" is nothing but a slogan and globalism is nothing but an ideology for destroying the middle class and undermining workers. Too bad we all had to suffer for you stupid conservatives to learn this!
#1, There must be something wrong with the comments software or there should be more comments on this topic.
#2, Both democratic and republican globalists have sold this country down the river. No one is asking questions about the danger of relying so heavily on overseas products. If needed, how long would it take to bring back factories to supply basic needs of our military? Could we bring back our steel mills quickly? What about components for computers? Name any product and try to find out if we could supply our nation in an emergency.
An interruption of supplies from China could cripple our economy.
China is #1 in Forex reserves . . . the USA is #20. Yet we spend money like drunken sailors being cop to the world.
The unforeseen consequences of our foreign and trade policies are starting to catch up with us. We lose.
I think there IS something wrong with the comments software.
I posted a response to something earlier, and while it appears on my profile it's nowhere in this thread.
And it's not the first time...
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