I am a staunch right wing conservative, who is against BOTH Obama and McCain. I would support Obama if he would start to put our priorities straight such as favoring the needy in Atlanta Georgia over Tiblisi Georga, and repeal NAFTA, and all other free trade agreements, that undermine national sovergnity.
Since world trade really kick into high gear there has only been 1/6th the amount of new jobs created in the US as compared to the 1990's. As a result incomes for the middle class have declined with inflation.
The obvious conclusion is that the jobs are being outsourced or offshored. If I were a Davos billionaire I'd still be enthusiastic about world trade because I would be getting all the benefit.
Its time to reexamin this whole trade situation.
Besides pulling out of Iraq, I would also like to see us quit wasting our money stationing troops in countries like South Korea and Germany. These countries are wealthy enough to take care of their own security needs.
I have voted Republician since Ronald Reagan. But, the money-con section of the party got greedy and short changed the middle class. The moneycons will discover that there are not enough of them to get elected dog catcher without the middle class voters. I will be voting for Obama this time around and for democrats in Congress.
I've been trying to ween myself off the habit of "hearing what I want to hear" but in this regard at least, I have the weight of historical precedent. Historically the Democrats have been more vocal in their opposition to free trade but have been just as good or better at getting free trade policies passed into law. There's some evidence that his type of party-line reversal happens all the time and on both sides of the aisle. The logic is that the American voters are more willing to swallow bitter pills if they are delivered with hesitant hands. So while Obama talks about more protectionism at home, I doubt he'll do much about it. And, I''m not alone in believing that that would be a horrible mistake. The American government needs to pull dollars out of circulation and find ways to attract more FDI and limiting trade is detrimental to both tactics.
He hasn't really said what he would do, with NAFTA for example, but I for one would like to see less protection on American goods while seeing a simultaneous addition of some labor and environmental strictures abroad. The net effect on trade could be engineered to be minimal (shifting of commodities but not dollars transfered) and there should be downward distribution of wealth. In that way Obama wouldn't be adding domestic protectionism but it's effect would be similar in that it would temporarily and artificially raise the effective standard of living in other countries which would 1) encourage them to buy more American goods and 2) discourage American companies from moving manufacturing overseas...without directly legislating either.
The obvious conclusion is that the jobs are being outsourced or offshored. If I were a Davos billionaire I'd still be enthusiastic about world trade because I would be getting all the benefit.
Its time to reexamin this whole trade situation.
Besides pulling out of Iraq, I would also like to see us quit wasting our money stationing troops in countries like South Korea and Germany. These countries are wealthy enough to take care of their own security needs.
I have voted Republician since Ronald Reagan. But, the money-con section of the party got greedy and short changed the middle class. The moneycons will discover that there are not enough of them to get elected dog catcher without the middle class voters. I will be voting for Obama this time around and for democrats in Congress.
He hasn't really said what he would do, with NAFTA for example, but I for one would like to see less protection on American goods while seeing a simultaneous addition of some labor and environmental strictures abroad. The net effect on trade could be engineered to be minimal (shifting of commodities but not dollars transfered) and there should be downward distribution of wealth. In that way Obama wouldn't be adding domestic protectionism but it's effect would be similar in that it would temporarily and artificially raise the effective standard of living in other countries which would 1) encourage them to buy more American goods and 2) discourage American companies from moving manufacturing overseas...without directly legislating either.