Alan Tonelson: Protectionism Levels the Playing Field

[Post Summary]

Let my beloved eat his garden's pleasant fruits.
—Song of Solomon

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Did anyone think defenders of the debt-riddled train wreck otherwise called the U.S. economy might humble themselves before the failed business model they've played part in building?

Today, CNBC's Erin Burnett, earning a paycheck on the Mother Ship steaming at the core of the rigged game called globalization, took aim with a rapidly failing world view and, assisted by the Cato Institute, pointed a pitted ideological cannon at one Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business & Industry Council.

One wonders what of a sound investment environment cultivated by a stable, vibrant, growing manufacturing base defies the understanding of a college-educated personality appearing on a so-called business channel?

Since when are alleged advocates of business opposed to production's growth everywhere, even at the cost of protecting the means by which this historically has been accomplished with profound, lasting effect?

You see, Erin, when manufacturing is allowed to flourish everywhere, you no longer need to suffer the stain of working for a morally bankrupt enterprise presenting prostitution and the drug trade as "viable" business equivalents.

Is not the "cost" argument defending globalization falling on deaf ears grown by the millions over the past couple years? Such is the consequence, I suppose, when you allow reality's sunshine to warm the minds of those who no longer have a roof over their heads.

In response to Cato's whining over "political special interests" promoting protectionism of domestic manufacturing, the arrogance this displays toward the lower 80% of Americans whose lifestyles have been decimated by the mountain of debt made necessary to accommodate a wildly unfair global trade regime that sacrificed domestic incomes to low-cost producers (who, indeed, even employ slave labor) plainly reveals the face of the same adversary against which this nation rebelled.

It is well known the Nazis used slave labor, too. Less widely appreciated is how the proponents of unregulated free trade and globalization likewise lauded Hitler's Germany, as well as provided it a great deal of financing in helping build up its terrible war machine.

What can we say? Whether this world's ideological garbage comes from a pretty face or a pounding fist, some things never change.

—Tom Chechatka