Buchanan, sole voice against free trade?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Tue Mar 2 08:21:30 PST 1999


Max Sawicky wrote:


>The presidential nominee race is obviously
>thin on the Democratic side, and neither
>candidate has any chance of criticizing
>trade rules. But it should be recognized
>that the media consistently elevate Buchanan
>(who is announcing for prez today)
>as the sole political critic of free trade
>and neglect everyone on the liberal side
>except Ralph Nader, who isn't a politician.
>
>So equations of anti-free trade and the
>right should be resisted. Buchanan got
>on this bandwagon late in the game, as he
>did for all of his other 'worker' stances.

Max, has EPI or the AFL-CIO done any polling on free trade? The anti-free trade position just doesn't seem like a political winner. And the few polls I've seen show a majority of the U.S. public approving of NAFTA. With 80% of the U.S. labor force employed in services, and so largely immune to international competition, does the anti-free-trade line resonate with the masses as much as it does with the UAW?

Doug



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