The Wrong Way to Contrast With Trump on Trade

[TexasTowelie]

A new book tries to get progressives comfortable with the free-trade consensus. There’s a better solution.


Ever hear a Democratic politician evaluate Donald Trump’s trade policy? I defy anyone to sum up the objections.

It’s quite unlike, say, tax cuts for the wealthy. We’re against them, he’s for them. The inhumanity of his immigration policies is not ambiguous. Yet on trade, your average, reasonably well-informed voter is as foggy on the issues as Trump.

Trump seems to think our trade deficit makes the nation less wealthy, which is nonsensical. But there are real impacts from the trade deficit for the replacement of manufacturing jobs by jobs in the service sector. Middle-class workers are suspicious of trade for this reason, and they’re not wrong. So Trump’s simplistic focus on the volume of the trade deficit and the implied impact on the composition of employment (“our factories”) is powerful politics.

Criticism of free-trade dogma has been traditionally avoided in genteel conversation. Critics were typically painted as antediluvian know-nothings enthralled by dark populist visions. On the right, this may now be a badge of honor.

Read more: https://prospect.org/article/wrong-way-contrast-trump-on-trade
(American Prospect)