There's nothing wrong with international trade and there are benefits for everyone when it's fair. Bush and the GOP love talking about free trade and the extensive benefits of free trade though they too easily dismiss the downside of supposed free trade, which can negatively impact both Americans as well as people in other countries. When powerful countries dump massively subsidized products on poor countries, selling for less than break even for locals, that's not fair and only leads to more poverty and suffering. When an American job is outsourced to someone who takes half (or less) to do the same job (and can still live comfortably) overseas, is that fair? Painting this as a black and white issue is false but what we've come to expect from Bush.
The issue of trade and disrupting the livelihoods of people is not something we should take lightly. Free trade is much more complex than initially concluded by Washington and there's no need to keep repeating the same mistake, just because that's what Bush and the GOP want to do. Just because Bush says free trade is great and the benefits are wonderful for everyone, doesn't mean it's true. We could use a lot more debate and discussion these days instead of business as usual. I hope that as a country, we have moved on beyond the dictatorial relationship between a power hungry administration and a lapdog congress. There is nothing wrong with finding a middle ground, though it seems like such a long lost art in Washington but one we need to rediscover. We live in a democracy so let's start acting like one.
