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.
