Oh boy, here we go. Reagan helped establish the WTO. Pointing out that fact does not make me a Chicom.
"Oh boy, here we go. Reagan helped establish the WTO. Pointing out that fact does not make me a Chicom."
I had to re-read this entire thread to get a handle on your point. Tell me if I understand you correctly ...
Are you are trying to tie NAFTA around Reagan's neck in order convince Conservatives into rejecting any future tariffs that might come about in a populist Trump administration? This is kind of an elaborate psyop? Hell, that ain't gonna work. Not with the devastation wreaked upon the USA manufacturing base.
Most smart people are intuitively pro free trade because the alternative reeks of Communism and other rottenisms. However, free trade is not some sacred trust enshrined in the Constitution or Declaration or Federalist Papers. (R)epublicrat shills and New World Order and Open Border types would love to convince people of this nonsense but it is not why Washington crossed the Delaware and not why we divorced England.
Free Trade as implemented in the past two decades is more like a mathematical formula, an algorithm that reduces all values to the lowest common denominator. Corporations hire abroad and then layoff at home, this has been proven inevitable because human beings pick the lowest hanging fruit. One quick way to jack up your stock price is to do exactly that, then they report successful cost cutting measures to the Wall Street financial press sheeple and everyone goes "Awesome!".
These free traders are quiet when this happens because they have no solutions, it is as I said, inevitable. Like water finding its level, or electricity finding the shortest path to ground, human beings will sell out America in a heartbeat because they have no loyalty to her in the first place.
If that was your purpose here, good luck. But you should prepare yourself for some bitter medicine, should a populist Trump administration occur. I doubt there will be any across the board Tariffs or kneejerk actions, but I expect highly targeted and effective measures to stem the bleeding like tourniquets.
I can't imagine what it is that "free traders" can possibly be arguing for, now, after all the destruction they have helped cause. If this describes you, do you mind telling me what on Earth reason you have to argue for more of the same? You've had it your way for a long time and the nation is far worse from it. What the heck is in it for you?