Posted on 08/25/2003 2:05:47 PM PDT by snopercod
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- This year's highly publicized job losses in North Carolina manufacturing, including the Pillowtex bankruptcy, could mean trouble next year for President Bush in a region that was a stronghold in 2000.
Bush won more than 56 percent of the vote in both North Carolina and South Carolina in 2000. But his strong support of free trade has turned some against him in the South, where U.S. trade policies are blamed for the loss of jobs in textiles and other manufacturing sectors.
Andy Warlick, chief executive officer of Parkdale Mills in Gaston County, said he doubts he will repeat his 2000 vote for Bush next year.
"He made a lot of promises and he hasn't delivered on any of them," Warlick said. "I've had some firsthand experience of him sending down trade and commerce officials, but they're just photo ops. It's empty rhetoric."
Fred Reese, the president of Western N.C. Industries, an employers' association, said executives are beginning to raise their voices against Bush and are planning education and voter drives.
"We're seeing a new dynamic where the executives and employees are both beginning to see a real threat to their interests. You're going to see people who traditionally voted Republican switch over," Reese predicted.
The hard feelings were on display days after Pillowtex's July 30 bankruptcy filing, when Republican U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes walked into a Kannapolis auditorium to meet with former workers.
"Thanks for sending the jobs overseas, Robin!" shouted Brenda Miller, a longtime worker at the textile giant's Salisbury plant.
In December 2001 Hayes -- who is an heir to the Cannon family textile fortune -- cast the tie-breaking vote to give Bush the authority to negotiate "fast-track" trade agreements, trade treaties that Congress must vote up or down with no amendments.
At the time, Hayes said he won promises from the Bush administration that it would more strictly enforce existing trade agreements and pressure foreign countries to open their markets to U.S. textiles.
"Are we pleased with the way they responded? Absolutely," Hayes said. "Are we satisfied with where we are? Absolutely not."
Jobs in many industries have fled overseas since 1993, when Congress passed the Clinton-backed North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. About half the textile and apparel jobs that existed in 1994 are gone.
Since Bush took office in January 2001, it is estimated North Carolina and South Carolina have lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs.
And even more textile jobs could be out the door once quotas on Chinese imports expire at the end of next year.
Republican U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger voted for NAFTA and fast-track, and has seen his 10th District lose nearly 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture industries.
"Certainly, there's a political cost to any controversial vote no matter which side you take," he said. "People are casting stones, but we're trying to pick them up and build something."
Democratic U.S. Sen. John Edwards voted against fast-track in 2002 after voting for an earlier version. In 2000 he voted for permanent normal trade relations with China.
Recently, though, while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Edwards has attacked Bush's trade policies and called for fairer trade measures.
Robert Neal, vice president of the local chapter of the Pillowtex workers' union, said Hayes has worked to try to ease the impact of job losses in his district.
"Though he (Hayes) voted for fast-track, he is really concerned about the workers and their conditions in the state of North Carolina," Neal said.
Not everyone feels that way.
Reese is organizing 1,500 manufacturing companies across North Carolina in an effort to leverage what he calls a new voting bloc.
In South Carolina, voter drives are planned for the first time at Milliken & Co., which has about 30 plants in the state. Mount Vernon Mills of Greenville, S.C., is forming a political action committee.
The company's president Roger Chastain, a one-time Bush voter, doesn't expect to support the president or Jim DeMint, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Ernest Hollings.
"We're basically liquidating our whole middle class, polarizing people on the two extremes, have and have-nots," Chastain said of the manufacturing job losses. "We'll be a Third World country."
See #676 as well. More anti-capitalists hating Bush.
You have a point there, Arator and his minions, are probably directing things from behind the curtain.
GO Ralph GO!
Buy Assests instead of liabilities! The true secret to wealth and prosperity.
That is not Free trade as defined by Smith or Riccardo nor is it the way the current trade environmment works. Under the hypothesis posted why should you get any of the work. that million dollars was to be spent on imports and you were asked to explain how anyone other than the purchaser of teh imports would benefit. Clearly if the purchasses are entirely imports under your system there in no requirement or economic advantage to using an American for any of the labor by the exporter that includes delivery. Now perhaps you could gain an economic advantage by offering to do this job for free that is up to yoru and of course the exporter and importer.
Your rules not mine.
Jobs aren't scarce. People asking to be paid way more than they are worth are just in excess.
Such as? Yeah I have a modest home but what else?
I've missed South America from that list. I love working with people from all over the world. I'll cheerfully compete head to head with anyone. Mostly I win, I've lost a few fair competitions.
What I have trouble with is competing when my own government heavily subsidizes foreign competition. It's pretty hard to win when your own tax dollars are being used to feed your competition, let alone what other governments are doing to subsidize their own industries.
Marx was wrong. All he said was we'd sell the rope used to hang us. He failed to predict we'd sell it for money we gave to the lynch mob.
Or maybe he did think of it, but realized it just sounded too incredible to commit to writing...
That's nice. You're going to lose though. We will beat you.
Conservatives don't look for the federal government to give them jobs.
I have...and I was quite surprised to see the effective way Dean handled the attack.
With this issue, should the Demos trot it out, has the potential to shatter the Bush base. Nothing else has worked.
As to noting the number of replies, it generally is a guage of PASSION about an issue. A local radio talk show used the 760 posts to the Murdered Pedo Priest thread as a lead in (without mentioning Free Republic) to her program today.
BTW, the highest number of responses prior to this was in the 400-450 range.
It is gaining TRACTION!!
More FR faith in Karl Marx's economic and political predictions.
Now, thanks for sharing freepmails, but I never threated to "kick your ass", I did a profantity laced tirade, offended at you for accusing me of anti-semetism. However, that was the wrong tack. I thought that by showing my outrage of you falsely accusing me of something that I was not, you would reach out deep in the recesses of your mind, and remember your conscience, and quit scurrilously accusing people of being supporters of the third reich. Obviously. It didn't work. A few Adolphs, and One Germany quotes later, and you are still going at it.
I am not going to sit idly by while you do it. How many jewish merchants were there in Roanoke Virginia that Thomas Jefferson was bitching about exactly? He was referring to his fellow americans. Some might possibly have been jewish, but I even doubt that. Yeah, the town was teaming with jews. In fact, I hear that Virginia Beach was known for it's kosher delis, you brat. He was discussing a philosophy of those who value the dollar more than their fellow countrymen. You know this though, you demagogue.
I will stand up to your crap for the honor of Simon Wiesenthal. He knows what Nazi's are. He seeks evil and bears witness to that fact. Calling everybody a racist, dilutes the meaning of the word. There are Nazi sympathizers in this world. If everybody who argues with commercialism being valued over their country is a Nazi, the word loses it's power and awe.
It's all a game to you, and now that you know how ticked off I am, I am sure it will encourage you even more to slander me. I will not be moved. Go ahead and support "free trade" with communist China, communist Vietnam, and socialist India, while calling me and others National Socialists.
It will fail. People here who have posted with me in the past may disagree, but they know what is in my heart. You make false claims like that, and they will question everything else you say.
So, what is it this time ya jerk? Do I want to invest in ovens? Do I believe in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Do I want Arafat to take Tel Aviv? Give me your worst jerk.
LOL. You can spin but you can't win. Clinton long done gone with the wind. These things all happened on Bush's watch.
To review the Bush 'ignore it' MO.
-Bush ignored Clinton's 95% start on Palestine peace and it got worse. -Bush ignored the Arab world and we got 9/11. -Bush ignored NK and now they are working on the bomb. -Bush ignored the economy and we got a crash. -Bush ignored employment and we got a job meltdown. -Bush ignored post-war Iraq and it got worse. -Bush ignored 'old Europe' and now they ignore him. -Bush ignored the budget and now loads future generations with debt.
I don't hold much hope for his 'vision' to improve. The GOP needs a replacement
Good thing it doesn't do that.
When did I call anyone a racist or anti-Semite?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.