As a Tarheel, how bad is the local backlash against President Bush in regards to job lossses in the textile industry?
It's hard to say. It's pretty bad in some places, I guess. Charlotte isn't a manufacting/textile center, so we've been spared for the most part. It hasn't helped that folks like Rep. Sue Myrick (R) have been running around saying "President Bush doesn't care about people like you", and "he just doesn't understand" to laid off textile workers. Thanks a lot, Sue. In response to my complaint, she said she hadn't intented her remarks to be published by the media, she was just speaking from the heart.
Folks blame trade 'cause it's an easy bogeyman, but for the most part they're right: if China and Vietnam didn't cheat on the free trade pacts we've made with them, textiles would be fine.
If trade were the only issue, they wouldn't vote Bush. Thankfully it's not. The Democrats are salivating at the chance of using it against Richard Burr, but of course Erskine is on record pimping Bill Clinton's trade deals while Burr voted against PNTR for China and all that.