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."
Someone around here is... and he's definitely sympathetic to the Buchanan Brigadiers. We already lost Chancellor.
Where did I call you a "Nazi"?
NAFTA was passed on CLINTON'S watch, yet when the bottom finally falls out on BUSH'S watch, the disenfranchised voters want to make HIM pay by voting for a Clintonista?
I agree with the war in Iraq. I am for military support of Israel. So therefore I must be in favor of "free trade".
One is in favor of Nafta and GATT, therefore one is in favor of oral sex in the white house. See, Clinton is for NAFTA and GATT, and he likes interns, therefore if you like NAFTA and GATT, you like seducing young interns.
I am no fan of Pat Buchanan. I think he demagogues on Israel, and is too much of an isolationist, and spends way too much time worrying about the rights of prison guards from WWII.
That being said, I agree with him on trade. I agree with Clinton on wearing boxers. I agree with Hillary Clinton on something I am sure.
The demagogues on the free trade side though, have insisted on painting people who oppose free trade as all being racists. I am sure some people who oppose free trade are. Just as on the other side, I am sure there are some who don't give a rip when safety procedures they needed to follow in the US, could be ignored in Vietnam, and asian workers lose hands.
The debate has been clever. I don't have what it takes to try linking everything Clinton did with the Free Traders. Because it is wrong. They would have been for Free Trade without Clinton's endorsement, and despite it. Yet they don't offer the same courtesy to their opponents.
I am sure there are Free Traders who are pro-choice, and pro-life. I am sure there are anti free traders who are pro gay and anti gay.
This charicaturization of people's gestalt based on how they feel about trade is disturbing and doesn't foster the debate. Texas Dawg just as admitted as much up this thread. His entire point is going nuclear on anybody who agrees with anything Buchanan ever says and to paint them all this way.
It's a readily available admission that he isn't interested in seeing the other side. His point is too smear. Should we go tit for tat, and say that he endorses the rape of Juanita Broderick by Clinton. The man signed Nafta and GATT after all! No. It's wrong, untrue, and hurtful to those who are offended by rape, have loved ones who have been raped, and are disgusted that Bill Clinton abused women.
Just my two cents.
Then I assume that you aren't concerned at all that a magazine that is the bastion of liberal thought (sarcasm), Forbes, indicated that this might turn out to be an explosive political issue in the next election as well?
What I think you are misunderestimating is that the while both sides certainly have facts and strong arguments to bolster their respective positions, only one side has the emotional punch.
The middle votes on emotion... the idea of jobs leaving the country (and fwiw, factories are even leaving Mexico, according to The Economist several weeks back) will hit the swing voters right in the gut.
I can if you give me a government grant to do it. I hear the paperwork process is a killer, but I need the additional funds.
It may take a while though first I need to hire some more staff to do the research for me. That should take no longer than a couple of months if I can fast track the selection process. Of course If you want the best job possible in may take longer cause I will have to fight the Rainbow Coalition and the ACLU if I want to hire the "BEST" rather than the "Right" employees.
Also I am sure I will have to expand my business property because trying to get all my new workers in my present office space will surely violate some obscure OSHA law.
An EPA site study should take no longer than 6-12 months on my proposed building site (seems after a hard rain there were a few areas of standing water that are now considered possible wetlands.) Also I got a letter from PETA and Green peace telling me that my property is one of the last places that the three toed spotted owlbeak beaver lizard spawns on, the upcoming lawsuit initiated by them further complicate matters.
Also the Local representative for the United Proletariat Office Workers of Amerika wants to negotiate a new contract. Seems they now consider a Living wage at 32.95 an hour plus benefits which includes among other things 6 months paid vacation and Free Health Care for eternity.
Also I must devote some time to the lawsuit initiated by a former customer who sued us because she got a paper cut on the index finger of her right hand. My Lawyer says we can settle for 3.2 mil which includes the aggrieved party signing a non-disclosure form. I was hoping for 2.8 mil but I am going to talk with my accountant and see if I can get a loan for the additional funds. I am not sure if I can take this off my taxes as a business expense.
Speaking of Taxes I may be delayed some more on your project as I've been informed that 22 years ago I forgot to dot the I in my name when I signed my Tax forms which has resulted in a 18 cent fine. Of course the fine has been subject to interest and penalties these past 22 years so I now owe in the neighborhood of $822,000. My accountant tells me if I dig out all my records for the past 22 years and spend 6 months with the IRS auditor I may be able to settle for half.
All in all I can do the job you wish but it may take me near 3 years and of course I can do it for the low low price of $64k and change.
Of course I hear that Habib's Reports "R" Us over in Pakistan is offering a deal this week on 500 page reports. He can guarantee delivery via internet in 3 hours and all for $22.95. Normally I wouldn't tell you such but the new America First Business Act Makes it the law. Seems there was a minor a loophole inserted in the law at the last minute that states if anyone can prove they have a business in the USA they are considered an American Business and must equally be considered for all work.
I hear Habib's brother is doing well with his hot dog vending cart in New York City. He sends Habib his cut monthly.
Anyhow let me know.
Mad Dawgg
A little Goebbels in your imagination? Pat fully supported Bush in the Afghan war as a response to the 9/11 attack on America. Pat is for protecting American interests both in war and in jobs.
Wow. How brave.
Hardly. I read your post and you argue that the only taxes collected are when they are levied on imports. It seems that you are a member of the Hate America First cabal that feels that US companies must be forced by law to be less competitive than their counterparts in foreign lands.
Was is pitiful to see is that you drive on the roads, you breath clean air, you drink treated water, expect a legal and court system to protect you, and a military to keep the bad guys out, then you say "Screw You" and send your money to benefit foreign governments.
Oh, really? From the Frum article hchutch linked above:
The 9/11 attacks sent Patrick Buchanan plunging into handwringing and pessimism. He wrote on September 28, 2001: "We are told the first target of America's wrath will be the Taliban. But if we rain fire and death on the Afghan nation, a proud, brave people we helped liberate from Soviet bondage, we too will slaughter hundreds of innocents. And as they count their dead, the Afghans too will unite in moral outrage; and, as they cannot fight cruise missiles or Stealth bombers, they will attack our diplomats, businessmen, tourists."
Yes, but not for many years.
Everyone should make it a point to drive down I-10 through El Paso. On one side of the road is a prosperous city with paved streets, automobiles, street lights, an people walking around.
Turn your head to the South and you see barren hills covered with tarpaper shacks, no automobiles, no improvements of any kind. It breaks one's heart to see it.
But it is not the job of the American taxpayer to "fix" their system, other than to set a good example. The Mexicans themselves need to do it.
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