Dobbs freely admits he supported NAFTA and Gatt and he freely admits he was wrong then.
I'll bet he was one of the solid phalanx of respectable opinion praising NAFTA. Every editorial page of every major publication supported NAFTA. Every living ex president. A solid wall of elite opinion. But it barely passed. It barely passed because Mr Regular Joe didn't buy it. He knew he was being screwed and his job was going to be shipped overseas. But then again, those jobs America could afford to lose couldn't they ? And he could be retrained for the plentiful job opennings that would become available in high tech.
The little peopel who opposed NAFTA and GATT were correct and why shouldn't they be. They are the ones who are struggling to get by and are hurt in any major economic upheaval and all agreed NAFTA and GATT would be a major economic upheaval. Now those who argued for these treaties tried to tell everyone that this upheaval would result in a whole lot more real income for the "regular Joes." Of course whenever the "regular Joes" here what a good deal they are going to get from the elites they realize the real meaning is BOHICA.
Well with outsourcing and H1b's free trade has destroyed its support base. Every American who works at a terminal knows that his job can be shipped overseas for a fifth of the cost. Every American sees that Buchanan, Perot, and the unions were absolutely right and that solid voice of elite opinion was dead wrong. This isn't blackboard theory. This is people you know and care about losing their homes and careers precisely when they were supposed to be in their save for retirement peak earning years. This is your college graduate children unable to find jobs.
Yeah changing one's standard of living to that of the Third World just does not seem attractive to most Americans and whenb push comes to shove they may just shove back and the resulting violence will not be pretty.
As do I.