No Kidding. But, protectionism NEVER helps/helped any economy. Talk to the Germans and French.
'Protectionism' doesn't have to be 'isolationism'. We can trade internationally as we always have, but with the same restrictions, limits, checks and balances we always used to employ. Maybe you don't remember the time when American made products were the envy of the world, back when we exported far more than we imported.
It's only been recently that we have bestowed China with 'Most Favored Nation' trade status, and in fact, it's only relatively recently that we opened up trade with them at all. There is new mentality that claims manufacturing and producing nothing is the best way to go if we can get cheap labor and cheap products from overseas. But this 'strategy' completely ignores whom we are trading with, (our enemies), and it looks only at immediate profit while turning a blind eye to things like becoming dependent on these nations because we no longer engage in manufacturing. It also ignores that fact that while WalMart is booming by selling us the cheesiest goods ever sold in America at a low cost, we are going back again and again to replace these cheap products whereas they used to last much longer. Let's not forget either that in order to continue selling us these cheap goods, WalMart must give us cheap service and pay their employees cheap wages.
The way modern day 'global trade' is run, it's exactly akin to illegal immigration. Both help make the economy look better on the face, but in reality they are only fostering cheap quality and craftsmanship, (good for business, bad for consumers and bad for America).
As America gets more and more absorbed into the world by the 'globalism' obsession, we lose more and more of our national identity and economic clout. Unfortunately, 'globalism' doesn't stop with buying and selling, we are getting so entangled with global trade that it is now dictating political policies, (to wit, we traditionally restricted trade with China because we viewed them as our enemy and the enemy of freedom. But how quickly all that changed when the globalists envisioned China as a potential place to trade-rape. To China's credit and our own shame, however, China has taken our 'economists' to school and turned the plan around. It is they who benefit economically from us, not vice-versa).