In opposing #Trump, we must not slip into defending neoliberalism.
▻http://www.alternet.org/economy/trumps-trade-talk-even-remotely-intelligent
Donald Trump now has signed an executive order pulling out of the TPP negotiations.
Is this a victory or a defeat for the tens of thousands of progressives who campaigned to kill the TPP?
On the same day Trump killed the TPP, he met with corporate executives saying he would cut taxes and regulations to spur business development. But he also warned that “a company that wants to fire all of the people in the United States and build some factories someplace else and think the product is going to flow across the border, that is not going to happen.” He said he would use “a substantial border tax” to stop those practices.
Is this a victory or a defeat for workers and unions who for three decades have been begging politicians to stop the outsourcing of decent middle-class jobs?
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The progressive instinct, and rightfully so, is to trash Trump. If he’s for it, we must be against it. When it comes to immigration, civil rights, abortion, freedom of the press and many, many other issues, that’s a sound strategy.
But trashing Trump for saving jobs in the U.S. is suicidal.
In opposing Trump, we must not slip into defending neoliberalism. It’s not okay for corporations to pack up and leave. We should have some control over our economic lives and not leave all the crucial decisions to Wall Street and their corporate puppets. Trade deals are bad deals unless they enforce the highest health, safety, environmental and labor standards. And those measures must be enforceable by all the parties. The race to the bottom is real and must stop.