Where others see an apocalypse, I prefer to look for logic. And that which drives Trump 2.0, as chaotic as the outcomes might be, does occasionally overlap with some degree of reason. Just ask the other guy, the one who has been obsessed with the American worker, about free trade agreements.
Back in 1993, he opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), arguing it would accelerate the loss of American manufacturing jobs and drive down wages by incentivizing companies to move operations to Mexico.
Then, in 2000, he stood firmly against Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China, arguing again that it would simply allow corporations to offshore factories to low-wage nations and result in an epidemic of factory closures domestically.
Starting about a decade later, he fought against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), citing the benefit to multinational corporations at the expense of the American worker.
And when Trump 1.0 tore up NAFTA and drafted the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), he opposed the new deal as well, stating it was a continuation of failed policies.
In his words, a major reason for the decline of the American middle class and the increase in wealth and income inequality in the United States is our trade policies.
On another occasion, he wrote, Let’s be clear: one of the major reasons that the middle class in America is disappearing, poverty is increasing, and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider is due to our disastrous unfettered free trade policy…we must rebuild our manufacturing sector and, once again, manufacture products that are made in the United States of America.
That was in 2011.
The man is a classic progressive, the East Coast dripping from every word he says.
He’s pro-tariff, in a targeted way, provided Congressional approval is part of the picture.
Some call him a tree-hugging socialist.
He prefers to be called Bernie Sanders.
Back in 2016 and 2020, he and Trump both campaigned against free trade agreements.
Are they crazy?
Or are they onto something?
