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The odd part about capitalist based policies on trade and skilled work force immigration is how much the left has supported them. The right has long held a "cap

The odd part about capitalist based policies on trade and skilled work force immigration is how much the left has supported them. The right has long held a "capitalist laissez-faire" approach to economic policy, and has been open about that. But what I cannot wrap my head around is the paradoxical message of the left. On the one hand they have long been known for supporting and using government intervention to protect and bolster the common working man in the United States, but on the other hand have continuously and audaciously supported and put forwards free trade and ultra capitalist ideas. The outcome of which has been a disaster and is only getting started. Even more paradoxically, the most pro American Worker campaign ever ran, was run by Donald Trump, a quasi republican, who in turn won the election by stealing support from democrats in key states (Michigan, Ohio, Florida, etc).

markmet433 7y ago
The left used to oppose immigration into the 1990's. It's only the very recent "woke" racial left that supports globalization, capitalism and immigration.
tokai 7y ago
Social democrats won out last century over more radical socialist (in the west). Turned out marrying capitalism to socialism isn't that easy thou.
wahern 7y ago
1) The American left has always been suspicious of government and comfortable with the market economy. The range of policies that look acceptable to the social left skew much more to the right than the social left in other countries. 2) Beginning with Goldwater and culminating with Reagan, the American public internalized economic libertarian ideas.[1] (See, e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/25/archives/the-case-against-goldwaters-economics.html https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/25/archives/the-case-against...) By the 1990s the Democratic Party had lost their multi-generational primacy, and the only politicians able to stem the loses were politicians like Bill Clinton (see also Tony Blaire in the U.K.), whose strategy was to co-opt libertarian economics. [1] The reasons for this are complex. For example, Southern conservative politics becoming vociferous advocates for deregulation and free trade obviously has more than a little to do with Nixon's infamous "Southern strategy". Republicans promised southern states a larger share of industrial manufacturing by 1) shifting it from the North and 2) extracting concessions from foreign manufacturers to build domestic manufacturing plants as part of trade negotiations.
jayd16 7y ago
I think its more nuanced than this. Being pro-worker and anti-tariff is not a contradiction if you don't think tariffs will actually help workers. Democrats have more or less embraced that markets can work and policy makers have picked battles accordingly. I'm not sure what full throated free market policies US Democrats have put forward that overreach their GOP counterparts, although they have certainly become very complacent.

markmet433 7y ago

The left used to oppose immigration into the 1990's. It's only the very recent "woke" racial left that supports globalization, capitalism and immigration.

tokai 7y ago

Social democrats won out last century over more radical socialist (in the west). Turned out marrying capitalism to socialism isn't that easy thou.

wahern 7y ago

1) The American left has always been suspicious of government and comfortable with the market economy. The range of policies that look acceptable to the social left skew much more to the right than the social left in other countries. 2) Beginning with Goldwater and culminating with Reagan, the American public internalized economic libertarian ideas.[1] (See, e.g., https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/25/archives/the-case-against-goldwaters-economics.html https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/25/archives/the-case-against...) By the 1990s the Democratic Party had lost their multi-generational primacy, and the only politicians able to stem the loses were politicians like Bill Clinton (see also Tony Blaire in the U.K.), whose strategy was to co-opt libertarian economics. [1] The reasons for this are complex. For example, Southern conservative politics becoming vociferous advocates for deregulation and free trade obviously has more than a little to do with Nixon's infamous "Southern strategy". Republicans promised southern states a larger share of industrial manufacturing by 1) shifting it from the North and 2) extracting concessions from foreign manufacturers to build domestic manufacturing plants as part of trade negotiations.

jayd16 7y ago

I think its more nuanced than this. Being pro-worker and anti-tariff is not a contradiction if you don't think tariffs will actually help workers. Democrats have more or less embraced that markets can work and policy makers have picked battles accordingly. I'm not sure what full throated free market policies US Democrats have put forward that overreach their GOP counterparts, although they have certainly become very complacent.