GOP Voters Starting To Come Around....And Against "Free Trade"

There really is nothing free about "free trade." It is a phrase used by Republican strategists and pundits to make people believe they want a level playing field and to let people pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. However, that happy feeling for those that love and adore capitalism is not how things happen reality. After trying it Bush's way for the last six years, moderate and conservative Republicans are starting to see the folly of their ways.

From The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democratic views and suggests trade deals could face high hurdles under a new president.

The sign of broadening resistance to globalization came in a new Wall Street Journal-NBC News Poll that showed a fraying of Republican Party orthodoxy on the economy. While 60% of respondents said they want the next president and Congress to continue cutting taxes, 32% said it's time for some tax increases on the wealthiest Americans to reduce the budget deficit and pay for health care.

Six in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations to limit foreign imports. That represents a challenge for Republican candidates who generally echo Mr. Bush's calls for continued trade expansion, and reflects a substantial shift in sentiment from eight years ago.

Although it is great that they see a problem with what is going on, these party faithful just do not get that any one of their candidates will never go against the fiscal policies of George Bush and the reasoning is simple. The cronyism that has gone on in the last few years has been spectacular for the large donors of the GOP. All of his potential GOP successors will only continue or strengthen the current fiscal climate. Unchecked globalization is good for business, and the people that get screwed in the wake of their path be damned.