Alabama's New Flag

Isn't this Treason?

“Should taxpayers in Alabama be required to bail out American automakers whose plants are concentrated in Northern states like Michigan and Ohio? Alabama is home to three Honda and Hyundai plants.”

Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama

Republicans Sacrifice Manufacturing States to Protect Farming States

We Yankee conservatives are not so lonely people but Republican economic policies isolate too many. There are plenty of conservative Democrats and conservative Independents, but they are no longer willing to commit national suicide to subsidize the old Confederacy. Republicans cannot wear enough American flag pins and punch enough gay people to fix this. Right now, Democrats can credibly claim that Republicans only benefit the south and the midwest and that is because it is true. Democrats can claim that Republicans are dishonest when it comes to trade, and budgets, and any other important economic matter, because it is true.

The problem is that free trade is a sham. The United States does not have genuine free trade. Democrats, of course, tend to oppose it, but Republicans have blocked many elements themselves. President Bush torpedoed the Doha round of trade negotiations because of Republican refusals to have genuine free trade on food. Despite all of the talk of trade, you have never seen and will never see Republicans vote to lower food tariffs or allow food imports. Protect American cars? Republicans scream "No!" But protect American farms! Republicans scream "Yes!" How else is it that the Chinese can export manufactured goods to the USA, but their food products are banned? How else is it that anyone can go overseas and bring a car back, but cannot bring back a steak, or a plant. Importing food is illegal or uneconomic thanks to decades of Republican legislation. States that speak of competition while laughing at Michigan are not competing. They are subsidized.

How far does it go? Uncle Sam, in the interest of trade, would not dare issue any statement in favor of the American cars, but Uncle Sam can get Angelina Jolie to take it off for American milk. Not only do Republican states get protectionism and subsidies, they get free TV advertising. Those "Got Milk?", and "Beef, It's What's For Dinner?" commercials come out of your wallet.

Consumers Screwed from High Produce Prices

If American cars are overpriced because an average UAW worker is making $14 an hour, how overpriced is an American farmer? South Korean auto workers might make $3 an hour, but most third world farmers might make that in a week. As the GOP rails about the UAW extorting a wage of about 30k a year from Detroit, it pays nearly that in subsidies to tens of thousands of southern farmers courtesy the American taxpayer. If American agriculture were just a fraction as free market as the American automotive sector is, chicken and beef would be 50 cents a pound, bread would be practically free, and Americans would have real sugar to sweeten foods, not sickening high fructose corn syrup. Even Mexicans can get real sugar in Coke, but Americans can't.

Now, some Republicans and their pseudo conservative proxies were so outraged at help for GM that they swear they will never buy an American car again. When will these Republicans be equally outraged and quit buying American food? This dishonest self interest is insulting and has destroyed the GOP in the north, not Arlen Spector's party switching. While Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby and their Confederate Republican buddies vote NO on any sort of measure that might help northern manufacturing, they have no problem filling the cookie jar for their people. This is not a way to run a nation and it certainly cannot win elections.

Regional Economic Policies Cannot Win National Elections

It is worth noting the electoral damage Republican economic policies have caused. There is no doubt that trade was a key factor in John McCain's loss in the last election. Manufacturing states have abandoned the GOP. No one can stand by the thousands of shuttered Northern mills and chant the success of free trade and something has to change. John McCain could have changed that. Had John McCain come out more sharply in favor of reduced imports, as his vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin suggested, he might have well carried Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and with them, the Presidency.

As an aside, we wonder if the media pilloried Sarah Palin precisely because she intuitively grasped that protecting American workers is the issue that will bring socially conservative Democrats and Independents back into the GOP. Despite her neanderthal reputation, most Americans poll with Sarah Palin on guns, taxes, size of government, and to some extent even on issues like gay marriage and abortion. If Sarah Palin were to focus on a national economic message promoting trade reform first and foremost, while retaining her stance on social issues, she could probably carry 500 electoral votes in 2012. President Obama'a policies have doomed the economy to no substantive improvement in his term. Sarah Palin's folksy image, unwittingly carved out by the Democrats for her, lends her considerable popular authenticity. It's hard for someone to say she will destroy the union when her husband is in one.

In any case, Republicans must develop an economic strategy that benefits the entire nation. The election of Barrack Obama was not the rebirth of a 1960s counterculture. Conservative social values do not need to be modified, only economic ones. Until Republicans change their whole economic iPod and protect American workers as much as they protect American farmers, no one in their right mind can defend them national scale. Republicans will continue to lose elections when substantive issues matter most.