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2012 Feb 22 |
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http://www.theatlanticright.com/2011/04/30/if-mr-i-wanna-tariff-china-is-the-front-runner-were-in-trouble/
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Posted by Michael Merritt   |   2 comments

First he claimed to have evidence that Obama isn’t born here, and when the President finally released the birth certificate, basically came out and said “Just kidding!” Now Donald Trump tells us he wants to set a tariff of 25% on products coming from China and have the federal government set the price of oil.

In most other cases, we’d call this guy a progressive.  But over the last few weeks, Trump has became a sort of hero to many Republicans, due to a non-issue.  What’s going to become popular next because Birtherman advocates it?  Bailing out banks?

Allahpundit at Hot Air thinks he’s going to run, but then back out when he realizes his populist rhetoric just doesn’t make for a winning strategy:

Remember how Howard Dean, another man of righteous rage, was ahead in the polls until the primaries began and he suddenly realized that he was a bit too “much” for most Democrats? Trump will experience that too.

I’m not sure about that. The 2004 election cycle was largely about terrorism, with some social issues mixed in, and Howard Dean had a couple problems. One, he was rabidly anti-Iraq war, which had barely picked up steam at the time. It wouldn’t be until a couple years later, when things were going really bad, that it started to get a lot of negative polling.  And two, the media cover overage the “Dean Scream” really did him in.  It’s not easy to win if you sound crazy.

Trump, on the other hand, is raising non-crazy indignation over an issue that affects people at home: the economy.  However, instead of blaming particular domestic policies, like Obama did in 2008, he’ll attack what’s going on outside the country.  Contrary to popular belief on the right, many Americans, including less wonky Republicans (and if you’re agreeing with any of this post, that’s not you), have a soft spot for protectionism.

By painting China and Saudi Arabia as economic enemies – who want to hurt America by taking more than their fare share of trade power (in the case of China), and who want to raise oil prices to deplete the pocketbooks of Americans (in the case of Saudi Arabia) – Trump is offering an alternative view of the world to voters that, although he agrees with it, Obama has never really touched.  Trump will argue that if only we wielded the power to raise tariffs on China, and force price controls on the world oil market, all of our issues would be solved!

If such a strategy works, we can probably thank the 9/11 terrorists, the leftist media, and to an extent, the War on Terror, for it. Americans already gave a suspicious eye to other nations before 9/11, and the attacks did nothing to reverse that.  Though the outright xenophobia phase (fueled by WoT propaganda) has passed, our economic troubles, coupled with the shipment of manufacturing jobs to China, mean that protectionist feelings still remain embedded.  While domestic policies are really to blame for that, all that people will see are jobs (and gas prices) that were once here now are not.

If Trump can capitalize on those feelings, it could make for an effective strategy.  If he can couple it with an effective defense against the inevitable onslaught against the Ryan plan, and an offense on why tax and spend isn’t so great, I can very well see a future Republican candidate in Donald Trump.

Of course, there is the potential that it could backfire, if another Republican prospect can explain why globalism is the better option going forward, but that may be a tough sell right now.

So, what do you think? Can Trump use his populist rhetoric to win?

  1. Posted by smokincol
    | Quote | Trackback | Link #112262 ›
    smokincol are you as naive as you seem to be in writing this column? i don't know who you are or what your political position is but, you are sounding like a little oroteos yrrab songbird. oroteos yrrab is a fraud and the more people who pursue this issue the more evidence will appear that the statement is true. believing this certificate of live birth is real is akin to believing that the moon consists of blue cheese. totally impossible. orotteos yrrab is a concocted script by the democrat/socialist party. one cannot believe that there is a shred of truth in anything oroteos yrrab purports to be true because oroteos yrrab has done nothing but lie and backtalk in almost everything he said he would do, during the campaign. at least, if nothing else, Donald Trump, caused an earthquake in the WH and forced oroteos yrrab to do something he didn't want to do, and the evidence is clear. lies and damn lies are the bread of the democrat/socialist party which, if investigated sufficiently would yield the truth about oroteos yrrab and this would be the damning evidence that would send the democrat/socialist party down the drain, finally.
  2. Brian Shapiro

    I wouldn't say Pat Buchanan isn't a wonky Republican, or that Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are wonky. Palin and Beck on this issue just happen to be on side of who they'd in any other case call the 'elitists' in academia. Just as a mater of historical accuracy, labeling tariff policies as progressive would be a big mistake. In the early 20th century, conservatives were all solidly behind tariff policies, it was the progressives who opposed them — it fit into their world view about internationalism — Woodrow Wilson being one of the biggest proponents of free trade. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points ) Conservatives maintained the Whig position, which went back all the way to Alexander Hamilton.

    Conservatives only changed their views during the Cold War when free trade it was seen as an economic and political weapon against the Soviet Union. That was one of the defining features, in fact, of what made the neo-conservative movement — they were internationalist conservatives, wanting policies that help establish the dominance of the free market across the globe. In order to achieve that, they supported military intervention abroad, free trade, open borders, and so on..

    So be careful when this other Republican prospect explains how globalism is really conservative and how isolationism is progressive. You're going to see a lot of backlash to the Glenn Beck-style libertarian type of messaging. All the holes in his account of history will be forced open.

    I myself am against free trade, but I still think what Trump is proposing is ludicrous. Tariffs can be seen as a policy tool or a weapon. I don't think "China is screwing us", I just think we have bad policy.

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