Source: The Dispatch
by Jeremiah Johnson
“For decades, the working consensus in American politics was that free trade was good. Every Republican presidential nominee from Gerald Ford to Mitt Romney supported agreements to expand and liberalize international trade. Democrats have historically been a bit more reluctant, but their most successful presidents of the last 50 years — Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — both championed free trade and pursued large, multilateral trade agreements. … That changed in 2016. Hillary Clinton broke with the Obama administration to oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership, and Donald Trump tore up the GOP’s traditional views on trade to promote heavily protectionist, anti-trade policies. … If Republicans are now the party of high tariffs and trade skepticism, Democrats can’t just be the party of ‘tariffs, but smarter.’ America needs at least one of our major parties to stand up, loudly and clearly, for free trade.” (11/03/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/democrats-protectionism-labor-free-trae/