GOP VOTERS REJECT GLOBAL TRADE AGENDA
|| By RICK MANNING || The Michigan primary results on Tuesday signal a quantum shift in GOP voter attitudes on “free trade” policies that have served corporate crony agendas leaving the American people behind.
That’s not just analysis, it is fact based upon a just released Americans for Limited Government survey conducted by independent pollster Patrick Caddell. The stunning results of the Caddell study showed that GOP voters reject the global trade agenda at an even higher rate than Democrat voters, throwing conventional wisdom on its ear.
The ramifications for President Barack Obama’s ill-conceived Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could not be more ominous. When asked in an informed question about whether the TPP should be passed in a lame duck Congress, Republican voters oppose it by a 66 to 15 margin, far outstripping Democrat or Independent opposition.
This represents a quantum shift in anticipated political party attitudes on an issue where Republican members of Congress could be counted upon to salute in almost lock-step in favor of any legislation labeled “free trade.”
The conversion point for Republican voters comes from a strong sense that the system is rigged against them in favor of the corporate cronies who manipulate the law to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.
Caddell found that GOP voters view the results of the free trade agreements over the past two decades serve as the primary indictment against any new agreement with a 59 percent saying that previous deals were “more of a benefit to other countries”, and a startlingly low 4 percent agreeing that free trade deals have been “more of a benefit to the U.S.” and only 14 percent who said they were “equally beneficial to all.”
The economic facts over the past two decades bear out GOP voters dismissal of the notion that trade deals help the United States. The year 2000 was the last year that the U.S. economy grew at 4 percent or above, and not coincidentally, the same year the U.S. granted China permanent normal trade relations.
What makes the current skepticism even more acute is the fact that the U.S. economy has not even grown at a 3 percent level since 2005, and the past ten years have had the worst level of GDP growth since the Great Depression as labor participation among working age adults has collapsed.
When asked in an informed question about whether Congress should pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a lame duck session as has been proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, GOP voters answer with a resounding no, opposing passage of the deal by a 66 to 15 percent margin …
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Rick Manning is president of Americans for Limited Government. Follow him on Twitter @RManning957. This excerpt (reprinted with permission) originally appeared on Fox News.
17 comments
GOP voters also think Obama is a Muslim, that the country is in ruin and ISIS is running wild in the streets of the USA. They are in a bizarre world of their own making. Their opinions are worthless
Rick Manning that all the time. Just because the majority favors something it must be right. The only ””logical”’ argument he makes is:
2000 was the last gasp of the Clinton boom years. After that we began the Republican dark ages and the reign of the Oligarchs.
Clinton/Gingrich boom years… Like the Reagan/Tip O’Neill boom years.
Clinton came to the table because of Gingrich. Tip never came to the table-Reagan just rammed it down their throats.
Another Big T/grand tango/flip/personality These much grow like weeds. Back to you meds. The orderlies will arrive shortly.
He is a Muslim,the country is in ruin and ISIS is stronger than ever while Iran breaks the agreement Muslim Obama signed.
The bizarre world we have was created by an American hating pResident occupying the wH for 8 years with a goal of bringing this country to its knees.
pogo, thank you for proving me right.
Now, kindly fuck off.
Boy that’s dumb and tired. That line has been used more than a fat blonde in a trailer park.
GOP voters must like paying more for low quality crap made by overpaid union labor. Go ahead and start a trade war with our largest foreign suppliers of both consumer goods and components for American products, Mr.Trump. Protect high priced American products no one wants by making the price of foreign products even higher. Great idea. that will bring back jobs. Jobs doing what? Making products non one will buy. Oh wait, we will have to buy them, because you will make the foreign products so expensive no one will be able to afford them. That’s ok. The idiots who support you won’t blame you. They are clueless morons. Heck, you could probably shoot someone on 5th avenue in broad daylight and they would still love you, right? You who have bankrupted six companies, screwed your creditors, managed to lose money in the casino business (how does that happen?), and consistently demonstrated your crass bad taste and moral degeneracy. You are the New Republican party.
“The ramifications for President Barack Obama’s ill-conceived Trans-Pacific Partnership…” The same tired old shibboleths. The Bush administration entered the Pacific group trade negotiations in January 2008 — in case you’ve forgotten, that was a year before Obama was president.
This is a fact free zone, your argument is invalid.
We keep hearing this “trade deals” stuff. So a trade “deal” is actually as set of governing parameters around the purchase and sale of goods between a set of countries. It’s typically referred to as a “regime” – and they are lengthy negotiated multi-lateral agreements. Let’s take Trump’s China trade deals crap. So the vast majority of our trade with China, is governed under the World Trade Organization regime. It has 162 members who adhere to the trade rules established, including such rip off artist enemies of America as Chile, Estonia, Finland (closet commies), Luxembourg, New Zealand (and we know they have a sheep fetish), Poland, South Africa (that’s were the 3 and 5 series BWM’s come out of), and powerhouse Zambia. So is Trump advocating renegotiating the entire world trade regime? The WTO was established out of the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tarrifs) which was in effect for nearly 50 years, before the WTO was finally established. It took nearly 10 years to negotiate the replacement of GATT. And since it’s would be us against the world, most likely our decision to ask for it to be renogotiated would be met by a simple reply of FU. So what then, do we pull out, subject all of our exports to increased tarrifs and restrictions? Stop living in the past people.
It doesn’t matter what voters think about TPP. The vast majority of Congressmen and Senators are bought and paid for and will vote the way the global corporations tell them to vote.
Sing that song to Dow Chemical, Monsanto and BASF Mr. Manning (since you know so damn much…..)
You won’t get past the first verse…………….
Ya’ll understand it’s gonna pass – right?
New FITS drinking game. Everyone do a shot when someone says “crony capitalist”.