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In a word, the Free Trade system hastens the Social Revolution. In this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, I am in favor of Free Trade.

-- Karl Marx

Thanks for posting the quote. haha

Sanders, of course is a Communist and a strong protectionist.

John Maynard Keynes was a strong protectionist — leading in large part to a worldwide Depression.

Big Labor is VERY protectionist. They have opposed almost every measure to reduce trade barriers.

As Daniel Griswold notes at Cato, “In the past 30 years, labor unions have pushed for higher trade barriers in the form of “domestic content” requirements for autos sold in the United States, import quotas for textiles and steel, and the Gephardt amendments of 1986–87 that would have imposed sanctions on imports from nations that ran large bilateral trade surpluses with the United States (Destler and Balint 1999: 19). More recently, unions have lobbied for higher tariffs, quotas, or outright bans on imported steel, tires made in China, and Mexican-driven trucks on
U.S. highways. Labor leaders lobbied hard for the “Buy American” provisions in the $800 billion stimulus package that Congress approved and President Obama signed in early 2009.”

https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2010/1/cj30n1-10.pdf

Here is an article strongly supporting “progressive protectionism”:

http://www.compassonline.org.uk/publications/progressive-protectionism-the-only-effective-challenge-to-neoliberalism/

http://progressiveprotectionism.com/wordpress/

The delusional “progressive” economist Paul Krugman is another protectionist:

https://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/a-protectionist-moment/

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/03/in-which-ways-do-left-wing-economists-deny-or-refuse-to-recognize-science.html

Protectionism is a high-tax, Big Government policy.

BTW, TPP and NAFTA are not free-trade agreements.