An article ("A
New Populism Is Spurring Democrats on the Economy") in
the July 16 New York Times points out how Democrats are
more and more telling voters that their wage and job loss woes are
due to immigration, free trade agreements, and globalization in
general. The Times article states:
Clearly influenced by some of their most successful candidates
in last year's Congressional elections, Democrats are talking
more and more about the anemic growth in American wages and the
negative effects of trade and a globalized economy on American
jobs and communities. They deplore what they call a growing gap
between the middle class, which is struggling to adjust to a changing
job market, and the affluent elites who have prospered in the
new economy.... Democratic leaders say that unless Congress restores
the confidence of the middle class, it will be hard to sell Americans
on more trade or even an immigration overhaul.
A good example of just how outspoken some Democrats are on these
issues is Rep. Steve Kagen, who was elected to the House last November
from the 8th District of Wisconsin, a Republican stronghold in recent
decades. In a
recent column in one of the main newspapers in his district,
Rep. Kagen stated:
As your newly elected congressman, I have been listening to people
throughout our district, and everywhere I go, folks are asking
me where I stand on immigration.
There has never been any doubt in my mind that we need a new
and tough immigration policy — a national policy that stands on
these three essentials: 1) secure our borders, 2) obey our laws,
and 3) no amnesty or cutting in line — period.
Every nation has the right to enforce its borders, because a
nation ceases to exist when it cannot define and control its borders....
Our borders have been rapidly disappearing, starting with the
passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But it doesn't
have to be this way....
Several recent presidents sold us a policy of "invisible
borders" — a fool's gold policy that erased our borders
with Canada and Mexico, and what followed was not only the disappearance
of our borders, but our jobs as well.
This unacceptable sales job even has a name — the North American
Union, which would guarantee the end of the United States of America.
I'm absolutely opposed to it.
There you have it. One of the newly-elected House Democrats making
exactly the kinds of points about trade agreements and open borders
causing job losses, that the Times article says Democrats
across the country are making. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning
that Rep. Kagen specifically designates "the North American
Free Trade Agreement" and "the North American Union"
as major problems.
While these views by the Democrats could be minimized as merely
political posturing, it is especially noteworthy that organizations
as philosophically different as the Council
on Foreign Relations (CFR), which promotes open borders, free
trade agreements, and globalization, and the John
Birch Society (JBS), which opposes open borders, the establishment's
free trade agenda, and globalization, have recently published articles
connecting wage and job losses with immigration and free trade agreements.
For example, the CFR's Foreign
Affairs magazine recently published, "A
New Deal for Globalization," in its July/August 2007 issue,
which stated:
Over the last several years, a striking new feature of the U.S.
economy has emerged: real income growth has been extremely skewed,
with relatively few high earners doing well while incomes for
most workers have stagnated or, in many cases, fallen.... Public
support for engagement with the world economy is strongly linked
to labor-market performance, and for most workers labor-market
performance has been poor....
The authors refer to several polls which show that over the past
six to seven years the majority of Americans has switched from supporting
trade agreements to opposing them, and that only 35% of Americans
with a college degree or higher now say they benefit from the global
economy. As a result, the authors are so convinced that the globalization
agenda is stalled due to a massive shift in public opinion that
they propose a radical redistribution of income for Americans through
changing dramatically how Social Security and Medicare are financed.
At virtually the same time as the Foreign Affairs article
appeared, the JBS published a
"Jobs" issue of its magazine, The New American,
titled "Transformation of American Jobs," which
stated:
The bottom line of all this discussion of job losses, immigration,
technology, international organizations, and Congress is this:
key votes by Congress over the past few decades on immigration,
trade agreements, taxes, and regulations have favored international
organizations, foreign nations, foreign citizens, and multinational
corporations over average American citizens. Congressional action
has played a powerful role in the de-industrialization of the
United States and has set up our services industry for future
job losses in the tens of millions through both offshoring and
GATS concessions under the WTO.
(Click here and here
and here for additional
articles from the "Jobs" issue of The New American.)
The point is that American public opinion is swinging toward rejection
of open borders, free trade agreements, and globalization in general
on the basis of widespread wage and job losses. This helps explain
why the Bush-Kennedy amnesty juggernaut was stopped in its tracks
in the Senate in late June.
All of which is extremely good news for opponents
of the North American Union.
