Schlafly doesn’t seem to realize that the mercantilist beliefs she worships like a religion were disproved by Adam Smith over 200 years ago.
Not quite, since she does not have mercantilist beliefs. You will notice Hunter being in the race has all the sudden made the free trader party very critcal of our trade deal with China.
I think characterizing her position as "worshiping" anything is at best simplistic, bordering on intellectually dishonest. It is also not true that Adam Smith disproved anything of the sort nor was it even possible for him to do so.
Adam Smith could not even have imagined such an economy in his wildest dreams let alone disprove or prove anything about this economy one way or the other. Smith, in the agrarian economy of his day, couldn't have imagined the possibilities for transport, communications nor the sheer magnitude of the present day global economy.
If you are comfortable with China cheating on trade and using American dollars to build their "arsenal of oppression", then so be it.