The only thing that’s missing is Ross Perot’s warnings about a “giant sucking sound.” Today’s fights over trade closely resemble the 1990s NAFTA debate.
Back then, there was a left-right coalition trying to derail the North American Free Trade Agreement. One of its leaders, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, today says that Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) could doom Republicans in 2016.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R.-Ala., has come out against TPP. The conservative Breitbart News has described Sessions and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, as the only two Republican senators who have read the bill.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a likely candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, has said he supports TPA in theory but not for this president. Fellow GOP presidential aspirant Carly Fiorina has denounced it as “Obamatrade.” Both Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump have slammed TPA and TPP while criticizing free trade more generally.
Despite populist conservative opposition to TPA and TPP, the current conflict is like the NAFTA debate in one other way: It puts many Republicans in the position of backing a Democratic president against the left flank of his party.
Bill Clinton faced off against liberals and labor unions who were against NAFTA, which had been negotiated by a Republican administration. This time around, Elizabeth Warren is giving Barack Obama fits. Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb and Martin O’Malley, all Hillary Clinton challengers, are anti-TPP.
The coalition against Obama’s trade gambit is certainly interesting. But does anyone expect it to actually succeed?
