Jacoby is hardly neither completely or partially ignorant.
Post-Civil War, as the Industrial Revolution gained impetus, our crony capitalists, bought and received a protectionist trade policy from the GOP. Always masterful at malarkey for the gullible, these political frauds and hustlers sold it as a necessity to shield our “infant industries”; complete and utter bullshit. Quotas and tariffs were imposed to bar superior manufactured goods from Britain and particularly Germany, after their unification in 1870. Incidentally, these barriers to free trade played a critical role in lengthening and increasing the severity of the Great Depression. So much for the republicrats as the party of Free Traders!!!
Excise taxes funded a large amount of the entire federal budget (up to 95%) until the 1910s. Tariffs had almost no impact on the federal budget (only 8 - 15% total federal income) during the 1930s:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariffs_in_United_States_history
Tariffs allowed businesses and individuals to not have income tax for 120+ years.
All taxes are penalties. Is it better to tax income, sales, property, or imports to least disincentivize our economy? This is not a hard question to answer.
The Smoot-Hawley meme is a contrived Free Traitor™ propaganda fantasy. So you want me to believe some obscure trade bill gets the blame for the Great Depression? Goebbels would be proud. Free Traitors™ need to either become Americans again, leave or go to the gallows.