One of the issues which is exercising liberals (proper JSM style) about the Democrats is their heavily protectionist rhetoric. Here are the voting records on barriers and subsidies of Biden, Obama, and McCain. I don't buy the argument that the anti-trade rhetoric is just for campaign purposes. If you look at the voting record it appears that these convictions are deaply held. It's a bit scary to think what the Democrats could achieve with control of the White House and Congress. Guess who's position I like?
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Obama, Biden, and McCain on Free Trade
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5 comments:
I'm guessing the position you'd declare your support for doesn't take into account the difference we all take for granted over ideal and realistic analyses.
I'd like to be one thing or the other, but there are always exceptions so it's never good to be quite so clearcut on things like this.
No. I'm going to be pretty clear cut. On trade Obama is wrong, bad, and dangerous. The Employer Patriot act is one of the most repellent bits of legislation around.
On trade the difference between the candidates is stark.
Ah good, we've found a point of disagreement to debate. I was starting to get worried there.
I agree that Obama isn't perfect on trade, but that's no reason to oppose incremental and improvements in favour of an essentialist position, is it?
Trade is a subject where I think multilateralism comes into conflict with self-interest and a natural preference for bilateral agreement. Therefore the process of opening markets is necessarily slowed down and subjected to the cyclical influence of history (you're gonna call me a whig again and I'm gonna deny it again) even if the overall trend is continually progressive.
Where lies the disagreement? Tell me I'm wrong.
Well, one step backwards can spur a leap forwards, or every journey can be described as a succession of small steps.
Maybe you're right, I'm not disagreeing, just discussing.
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