This issue confuses me here at Free Republic.
Sure, we don’t trust Obama and hate to give him any leeway.
But, aren’t we free traders? Don’t we want more trade with other countries? Isn’t that capitalism? Don’t we believe in capitalism? Don’t we want our President (God willing) in 2 years to have this same flexibility?
On trade (not to be confused with “treaty” or Iran- issues where 2/3rds of Senate should still apply - won’t get into that ugly Iran legislation) don’t we want more?
The usual suspects - trade unions, environmentalists, maybe even Hillary (if she ever let’s any one know) are against this thing. (Hillary used to be for it when she worked for “O”, but now she is probably against it to appease Warren.)
That alone should tell us that we should probably be for it!
There is no uniformity of belief among Freepers on this issue. This goes for the Conservative movement in general. Recall that one of the biggest opponents to Free Trade in the NAFTA era was Pat Buchanan, a conservative. Of course Bush supported it.
I'm not sure how "free" free trade is when you are dealing with unreconstructed Communist nations like China and Vietnam. Should American workers have to compete with the output of near-slaves in Commie hell holes like Vietnam, for the benefit of the ruling class in those places (and their internationalist ilk here).
What are the results of NAFTA? Did it work as claimed? Who was right: Al Gore or Ross Perot. One claim I heard made by the Goreites was that jobs in Mexico would mean an end or big slowdown in illegal immigration. That was clearly wrong. A claim made by Perot was "a giant sucking sound" as entire factories were moved to Mexico. That proved right.
So, for me I am an American Patriot first, and a free trade advocate somewhere down the line. I find the current international trade regime is broadly harmful to my country, so I oppose it.
But many here feel differently, as I said.
Sure we believe in free trade and free markets. We reject globalism and crony capitalism.
Capitalism was overcome by crony capitalism decades ago.
What you believe capitalism is, the real definition, has been supplanted by a version that doesn't allow competitors onto the stage. Only a select few are allowed to play.
Additionally, why are even members of our congress denied knowing the details of these secret agreements?
This also flies in the face of what this country is understood to stand for, traditionally.
What the control-freaks are hoping for is that good people will be paralyzed in place by words that have an alternate meaning, such as 'Free Trader.'
More like 'Free Traitor' in practice.
If free trade means giving secretive international tribunals the power to overturn our laws, I’d say no.
Fast Track has nothing to do with free trade and everything to do with lack of oversight. It lets the president sign whatever he wants and don’t worry about if it’s a good idea and deserves approval. And no I DO NOT want “our President” to have that ability because if he’s worth a crap he’ll only sign trade agreements that deserve approval.