In Washington Nothing Succeeds Like Failure

Source: WSJ

The One World lunatics at the Wall Street Journal have decided that since NAFTA and its brethren have been such an unmitigated failure the only solution is, another silly "Free Trade" dealie to compound the failures...

This year President Bush and the Democratic-led Congress should launch a new Association of American Free Trade Agreements (AAFTA). The AAFTA could shape the future of the Western Hemisphere, while offering a new foreign and economic policy design that combines trade, open societies, development and democracy. In concert with successful immigration reform, the AAFTA would signal to the Americas that, despite the trials of war and Asia's rising economic influence, U.S. global strategy must have a hemispheric foundation.

Successful and sustainable international strategies must be constructed across administrations. Ronald Reagan called for free trade throughout the Americas, opened U.S. markets

...I've been meaning to post this and this seems like as good a time as any. I recently finished Pat Buchanon's "State Of Emergency" and he has a quote in there from Richard Cobden that explains some of the messianic fervor of our "Free Trade" mavens...

"I believe that the physical gain will be the smallest gain to humanity from the success of this principle. I look farther; I see in the Free Trade principle that which shall act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation in the universe - drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonism of race, and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace."

All evidence to the contrary. This sounds great, and if it worked it would be thing of beauty, but beauty and utility are not always on speaking terms. If this were actually true, then wouldn't we be seeing some of these things happening right now? Do you?

Do you see the "antagonism of race, and creed, and language" being thrust aside, cuz I certainly don't. What I see is a cheapening and coarsening of our nation by those who hold profit as being the highest good. If your god is money what will your sacrifice be? What will you sacrifice to your rapacious god? What will restrain your darker impulses?

The true danger of this kind of philosophy is that it tries to replace God and the things only he can do with money, never works, never will work, in fact it can only bring evil. I've said this before but it bears repeating, I don't give a rat's ass if you believe in god, that's between you and he, but can you truly look me in the eye and tell me that something on the order of original sin doesn't make a whole lot of sense?

And are we really to believe that the solution to mans essentially depraved nature is trade? Really? This is dangerously utopian, dangerously foolish, and to me it explains a lot of the foolishness I read and hear about the principles of "Free Trade."

H/T Lonewacko

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