Posted under Election 2012 & Free Trade
Dustin Ensinger at EIC reports:
Likely Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney suddenly doesn’t sound like most of the others in his party when it comes to China.
Romney recently told radio host Laura Ingram that China’s economic rise is a major threat to the U.S., a significant departure from GOP orthodoxy. Typically, China’s rise is portrayed as mutually beneficial to the U.S. and the rest of the world.
“The emergence of China, with the trade policies they’ve pursued, has not necessarily been good for us,” Romney said. “These are real concerns, and I think we have to recognize we have a real world power emerging, and that represents a threat to us.”
Romney even said he would have thought long and hard about China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, and would have fought for stronger intellectual property rights and currency reforms.
Romney said that he fears China will use its growing economic might to become “belligerent and expansionary.”
“I think they are a great threat to the stability of the world long-term,” Romney said.
This is wonderful, and Romney deserves praise for standing out amongst a sorry lot. However, Romney writes in a selection from No Apology: Believe in America:
They simply do not believe in America as it was shaped by the Founders. They do not believe that the principles and values that made America a great nation still apply. They don’t really believe in free enterprise, free markets, and free trade. They favor government management over consumer choice. They delight when they can replace personal responsibility with government requirements.
Not only does Romney flip-flop; he doesn’t know his history. Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue until the income tax. Furthermore, Romney currently receives a D from NumbersUSA.
I like Romney’s latest repositioning on trade, but he’ll need to move much further to win my vote.
Weaver on 03 Feb 2011 at 3:46 am #
It might be argued that Romney’s calling for some sort of “true free trade”, which Bede noted is something akin to a globalist religion. List pointed out that free trade ideology first assumes a united global state, which of course is not the reality of the world today.
RedPhillips on 03 Feb 2011 at 5:06 am #
Weaver, I think you are misreading this. Except to the degree that he might be advocating some sort of reciprocal approach to trade with unfair trading partners, this is not about protectionism. It is about Romney’s paranoid jingoistic interventionism. He sees China’s rise as an economic power as a treat to America’s place as sole military superpower. To people like Romney, America can not have its economic superiority challenged without its position as sole military superpower being threatened. That is why another country attempting to better its economic position is seen as a “threat.”
RedPhillips on 03 Feb 2011 at 5:22 am #
Read this to understand Romney’s mindset. Especially the part labeled Strategic Inertia.
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/dissonance-on-defense/
roho on 06 Feb 2011 at 2:56 am #
Romney?
http://www.moneyteachers.org/Romney+Huntsman.htm
TV on 01 Apr 2011 at 8:30 pm #
Who is the “they” Romney is referring to in the second quote from his book? I’m having a tough time following the tie in.