Tariffs have the effect of favoring one class in society at the cost of a different class in society. In other words, government is putting its finger on the scales to favor one constituency at the cost of a different constituency. The Koch brothers lobbied on behalf of one constituency that had been favored for decades but which now they believe is being disfavored.
The degree to which tariffs cost some sectors, such as consumers, is mitigated to the extent that the targeted country, in this case China, devalues its currency which China has done. Further, if domestic producers of consumer goods do not raise their prices to the level imposed by tariffs on foreign importers, the impact on consumers is also mitigated.
Some consumers, most adults in fact, are job seekers or job holders and to the extent that their quest for work is satisfied because domestic producers need more labor to fill increased demand, the cost to the consuming class is further mitigated. To the extent that domestic producers pass along increase profits enabled by tariffs to employees as increased wages, the cost to consumers is also mitigated.
Some industries have been virtually extinguished by the trade policy favored by the Koch brothers, to the extent that those industries are revived and enter into domestic production, their employees, who are also consumers, are favored with new jobs and the harm to consumers is mitigated.
Meanwhile, the class of Koch Brothers employees and stockholders are disfavored. In reversing course, the government favors one class and disfavors another. Was the reverse of course prudent?
At some point the old system favored by the brothers had brought America to an inflection point, in which the consumer class as an employee class had been disadvantaged to a point that became dangerous for the whole economic system. Trump looked at the Chinese mercantilist model and saw an existential threat and has acted to reverse the hollowing out process resulting from acquiescence to Chinese mercantilism.
More than an equation between consumer and job holder, Chinese mercantilism posed a great threat to everyone by its bid to dominate the New Wave changing the world as potently as the Industrial Revolution, a wave which is now breaking upon us-technology. Not only was our industrial sector being hollowed out but grave threat to the all-important technology sector was made apparent. At this point government, or society if you prefer, whether wittingly or not made a decision to prevail in this technology war when we elected Donald Trump. To acknowledge this war puts the tariff question at a whole new dimension beyond what's good for this class or that, it makes war for the survival of the nation not just as an economic entity but as a sovereign entity.
To a conservative, survival of the nation equates with survival of liberty.
