Pat Buchanan believes that Republicans in the Congress should vote to bailout the Big 3 auto companies. He notes here that instead “they are now about to do something terminally stupid.” He goes through the entire scare list of how many jobs will be lost to Japan and Korea, etc.
But what caught my interest is his his easy dismissal of classical liberalism and free trade economics.
But the most magnificent industry, the auto industry that was the pride
of America and envy of the world, we surrender to predator-traders from
Asia and Europe, lest we violate the tenets of some 19th-century
ideological scribblers that the old Republicans considered the apogee
of British stupidity. (emphasis added)
“Real” Republicans don’t let friends engage in free trade.
