“Protectionism” for the greatest economic power on earth is fraught with problems. We’ll talk about it sometime if you want to.
We are in a real struggle, with China.
China is much of what America is not. It is cheap, competitive, and growing very, very fast.
It is also HIGHLY protectionist.
America needs to become much, much, much more competitive. Soon.
Or we will lose the lead, you speak of.
Already, it is a big conflict.