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Is Bipartisan Nationalism Possible?
American Thinker ^ | 5 Apr, 2025 | William R. Hawkins

Posted on 04/05/2025 4:34:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Classical theory may not care where the steel mills, chip foundries, shipyards, research labs, aircraft plants, oil fields, and supply chains are, but the real world of power politics does.

I spent most of my time during 20 years in Washington, D.C. working in a bipartisan manner on trade policy with the aim of keeping here, then bringing back, strategic industries. There was then a coalition of national security Republicans (on my side of the aisle) and labor union Democrats. Democrats did not want to lose the middle-class blue-collar jobs when factories closed. Republicans did not want to lose the industrial capacity critical to the defense base, made worse by seeing that capacity and its technology shifted to rivals like China where it shifted the balance of power.

The Democrats were by far the larger half of this coalition by at least 2-1, which did not set well with me. Not that I did not agree with their perspective. Through my undergraduate years I worked summers in factories in northern Illinois and for almost two years before I went on the graduate school. I was a spot-welder and a union member making better money than my degree in History would have provided (which is why in my second grad program I shifted to Economics). Unfortunately, the factories I worked in closed in the 1980s, shifting their production to lower-wage countries. My small town went into a depression.

A majority of Republicans in the post-Cold War Clinton and Bush years did not care about this deindustrialization wave. They were under the thumb of the Chamber of Commerce lobby in Washington which represented the larger “transnational” corporations which were moving the factories overseas (even if that meant smaller firms that belonged to local chambers were the ones being closed).

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: americanstinker; bipartisan; deepstate; rinos; tariffs; uniparty; williamrhawkins

1 posted on 04/05/2025 4:34:18 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

Losing strategic industries only works until some other country decides to declare war on you.


2 posted on 04/05/2025 4:34:28 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

“Republicans (on my side of the aisle) and labor union Democrats.” I think I see the problem.


3 posted on 04/05/2025 4:45:03 AM PDT by batazoid (Natural born citizen)
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To: MtnClimber

I think that the only real way to see the political divide these days is “Nationalist” vs “Globalist”. There can be no bipartisan effort between the two. Putting one nation first over other nations is antithetical to the globalists.


4 posted on 04/05/2025 5:29:44 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: MtnClimber

No. The Democrats will never be reasonable, never approach things with logic, never care about the common man, and never pursue anything but their own greed.


5 posted on 04/05/2025 5:34:01 AM PDT by sipow
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To: MtnClimber

Such classical theory is asinine. Points of production are always important, always.


6 posted on 04/05/2025 7:47:46 AM PDT by bobbo666
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To: MtnClimber

Bipartisan nationalism is impossible as the Democrats are now a hate America party that seeks the destruction of our Constitutional Republic in favor of our a Marxist state.


7 posted on 04/05/2025 7:54:50 AM PDT by The Great RJ
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To: MtnClimber

No, it is not possible at this time because of the positions Democrats have taken in order to oppose good things under Trump:

In favor of illegal alien murderers on the streets.
In favor of illegal alien child rapists on the streets.
In favor of China controlling the Panama Canal.
In favor of a bad trade deals with Mexico.
In favor of a bad trade deals with Canada.
In favor of caving into Columbia not taking back its citizens.
Opposed to peace in Ukraine.
Opposed to peace and prosperity in Gaza.
Opposed to Israel defending itself.
Opposed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.
Opposed to fair trade agreements.
In favor of dangerous DEI hires.
In favor of a perverted and thus weak military.
In favor of keeping excess government employees on the payroll.
In favor of pretending that there are more than two sexes.
In favor of mandating individual energy use decisions based on a dubious ‘climate change’ theory.
In favor or mandatory vaccines.
In favor of censorship of “misinformation”.


8 posted on 04/05/2025 8:47:22 AM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: MtnClimber

No, Democrats have become the Globalist Party 100 percent.


9 posted on 04/05/2025 11:47:38 AM PDT by cowboyusa
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To: MtnClimber

I read the article.

Once again I’m convinced we do not hate Congress enough.


10 posted on 04/05/2025 1:19:46 PM PDT by Jacquerie (ArticleVBlog.com)
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