James Capretta writes at National Review Online that Republicans are moving in the wrong direction if they embrace presidential candidate Donald Trump’s views on trade.
Donald Trump’s conservative defenders, betraying varying degrees of embarrassment, often try to explain away their support or at least acceptance of the GOP presidential nominee by arguing that, while his character and his temperament would normally be disqualifying, at least he is raising important issues that other Republicans have neglected for years. Specifically, they say Trump has finally brought to the top of the national agenda the economic prospects of working-class Americans (as if this had never occurred to anyone else before) by calling for, among other things, a more protectionist trade policy.
Trump has claimed repeatedly that his plan to issue threats and ultimatums to U.S. trading partners is the quickest way to “bring jobs back” to the U.S.
What utter nonsense.
Trump’s tirades on trade, and also on immigration, are more reasons to oppose his candidacy for president, not support it, especially for conservatives who claim to support free markets. Unfortunately, too many GOP officials have already begun to accommodate Trump’s views through changes in their rhetoric and by mimicking his absurd claims. This is a big mistake.
Contrary to Trump’s assertions, the global trading system has not been a colossal failure. Rather, it has been one of the great successes of the post-war era. Scores of studies have shown that international commerce has enriched the United States and its citizens, even as it has also integrated many newly developing countries into the global marketplace and thereby helped reduce the number of people living in abject poverty by hundreds of millions over the past half century. This is the opposite of a catastrophe.
