Um. Our nation had slavery too. Didn't mean it was right, just, moral, or even good economics. And the GOP was wrong on this. Thank God they got some sense.
Um...that's a really ridiculous argument. It was the protective tariffs that built our nation's middle-class and strong economy, not slavery. And, as I brought to your attention, the Republican Party platform excerpts were all from after the Civil War, not before.
The North imposed tariffs on the South when there was slavery. It was one of the economic forces that brought that evil tradition to an end. Walter Williams explains it here:
"Shortly after Lincoln's election, Congress passed the highly protectionist Morrill tariffs.
That's when the South seceded, setting up a new government. Their constitution was nearly identical to the U.S. Constitution except that it outlawed protectionist tariffs, business handouts and mandated a two-thirds majority vote for all spending measures."
Slave owners don't like tariffs, just like today's Corporate Execs, who are making greater profits from the near slave wages of Red China.
Thanks for furthering the argument for protective tariffs.
A more modern argument was made by Lou Dobbs recently:
"We can no longer sustain a free-trade policy that does not insist on reciprocal, mutual benefits to both our economy and those of our trading partners. Globalization at any price is proving to be too high a price for this nation to pay."
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/104100p-94205c.html