Why are American "liberals" so enamored by protectionism?

[RINO Tom]

I'll have to re-evaluate your intelligence if you're saying being a protectionist in the 1930s is the same as being one today.

As for why liberals like protectionism, it's because protectionism is a short-sighted economic policy that helps a few working class and poor people stay afloat rather than actually helping them better their economic position and does all of this at the expense of the American business community and greater American economy as a whole.  Sorry, but that's right up you guys' alley, bro.

[RINO Tom]

The premise is faulty.  Liberals in America (certainly the elected democratic pols) are the possibly least protectionist and most economically right-wing of all of the OECD countries.

Protectionism is most popular among conservatives in America because there's a significant part of the coalition that is older and uneducated and therefore gets screwed the hardest by trade agreements.  Contrast with the upper middle class educated professionals that are a significant part of the Democratic base.

News to me and exit polls everywhere!

[RINO Tom]

I'll have to re-evaluate your intelligence if you're saying being a protectionist in the 1930s is the same as being one today.

As for why liberals like protectionism, it's because protectionism is a short-sighted economic policy that helps a few working class and poor people stay afloat rather than actually helping them better their economic position and does all of this at the expense of the American business community and greater American economy as a whole.  Sorry, but that's right up you guys' alley, bro.

> Short sighted policy
> is a republican

BURNED ME !!!!!!

[RINO Tom]

The premise is faulty.  Liberals in America (certainly the elected democratic pols) are the possibly least protectionist and most economically right-wing of all of the OECD countries.

Protectionism is most popular among conservatives in America because there's a significant part of the coalition that is older and uneducated and therefore gets screwed the hardest by trade agreements.  Contrast with the upper middle class educated professionals that are a significant part of the Democratic base.

News to me and exit polls everywhere!

A sizable majority of voters with graduate degrees vote Democratic these days.

That by no means exclusively indicates a high income (finance majors with bachelor's degrees are going to make a lot more than education majors with a PhD), and it ignores the fact that college graduates as a whole still voted substantially Republican in 2014.  Let's not even get into the very, very clear evidence that Republican voting and a higher income are directly linked.

Affluent and educated people are AT LEAST as much of a part of the GOP's coalition as they are to the Democrats' coalition.  That should be beyond debate, but I guess it's not?

[RINO Tom]

The premise is faulty.  Liberals in America (certainly the elected democratic pols) are the possibly least protectionist and most economically right-wing of all of the OECD countries.

Protectionism is most popular among conservatives in America because there's a significant part of the coalition that is older and uneducated and therefore gets screwed the hardest by trade agreements.  Contrast with the upper middle class educated professionals that are a significant part of the Democratic base.

News to me and exit polls everywhere!

A sizable majority of voters with graduate degrees vote Democratic these days.

That by no means exclusively indicates a high income (finance majors with bachelor's degrees are going to make a lot more than education majors with a PhD), and it ignores the fact that college graduates as a whole still voted substantially Republican in 2014.  Let's not even get into the very, very clear evidence that Republican voting and a higher income are directly linked.

Affluent and educated people are AT LEAST as much of a part of the GOP's coalition as they are to the Democrats' coalition.  That should be beyond debate, but I guess it's not?

Yeah, I don't dispute that Rs are more likely to hold college degrees and be a little wealthier (the fact that they are all white helps in both of these regards).  But Democrats are more likely to hold postgraduate degrees, and that group of postgraduates in combination with the gigantic portion of the democratic party that is more identity-politics motivated than class-motivated has, I think, substantially if not totally neutered the class angle in the Democratic party in the past few decades.

Which is why in opinion polls Democratic voters (not really Democratic politicians) tend to favor protectionism less than the Republicans.

Why not, considering that it is just not true? Don't let RINO Tom fool you with his posturing - Obama won the college-educated vote both times. Everyone wants to pretend like their side is "smarter" - as in most issues (climate change, voter suppression, etc.), actual statistics back up our side.

LOL, you're ridiculous.  I'm not fooling or posturing anyone.  Mitt Romney won 51% of college graduates.  Republicans won college graduates HANDILY in 2010 and 2014.  Are these the statistics you're speaking of?

Democrats win postgrads, but they also win over 60% of high school dropouts.  To say statistics back up the claim that Democrats are "smarter" is holy-shlt-type stupid.

[RINO Tom]

Why not, considering that it is just not true? Don't let RINO Tom fool you with his posturing - Obama won the college-educated vote both times. Everyone wants to pretend like their side is "smarter" - as in most issues (climate change, voter suppression, etc.), actual statistics back up our side.

RINO Tom desperately clings to this romantic notion that the GOP is a bourgeois party primarily made up of North Shore Episcopalians and their counterparts around the country, when the party's footsoldiers have long been white Evangelicals and the culturally conservative working-class, who he sees as Jesus freaks and racists who belong in the Democratic Party.

Of course, Democrats aren't correct when they imply that they're the smarter party, either. They may possess more degrees by accident of demographics, but they are the same people who perpetuate dangerous, anti-intellectual ideas in the left-wing echo chambers of academia.

Let's dispel with this fiction that your education level or income makes you "smart", especially in the context of politics.

Seriously, what on Earth are you talking about?  You continue to get worse, somehow.  No successful political party is PRIMARILY made up of elites.  And I've never claimed it was.

[RINO Tom]

Not to suggest that Evangelicals and cultural conservative working class folks are bad people, but yeah the Democrats are much more the party of well-educated suburbanites than the GOP.

2010
$100,000 and up: 57%-43% GOP
College Educated: 58%-42% GOP
Suburban: 56%-44% GOP

2012
$100,000 and up: 54%-44% Romney
College Educated: 51%-47% Romney
Suburban: 50%-48% Romney

2014
$100,000 and up: 54%-44% GOP
College Educated: 57%-41% GOP
Suburban: 55%-43% GOP

As our friend Mr. Illini says, the stats don't lie.  You are literally just wrong, dude.

[RINO Tom]

I'll just leave this here...

No one said this wouldn't be an ABNORMAL election (which means, in case you weren't sure, different than the usual and default), which it will be.

It is indeed a strange political climate where self-described liberals are legitimately proud that the "masses" aren't on their side.  Kind of antithetical to the whole ideology.

[RINO Tom]

Well, the "masses" would be on her side, considering she's winning in a landslide in that poll.

I'm just saying, liberalism by its very nature is defined by helping the less fortunate.  Doesn't seem like the type of group that'd gloat about winning the votes of the most fortunate.

[RINO Tom]

The premise is faulty.  Liberals in America (certainly the elected democratic pols) are the possibly least protectionist and most economically right-wing of all of the OECD countries.

Protectionism is most popular among conservatives in America because there's a significant part of the coalition that is older and uneducated and therefore gets screwed the hardest by trade agreements.  Contrast with the upper middle class educated professionals that are a significant part of the Democratic base.

News to me and exit polls everywhere!

A sizable majority of voters with graduate degrees vote Democratic these days.

That by no means exclusively indicates a high income (finance majors with bachelor's degrees are going to make a lot more than education majors with a PhD), and it ignores the fact that college graduates as a whole still voted substantially Republican in 2014.  Let's not even get into the very, very clear evidence that Republican voting and a higher income are directly linked.

Affluent and educated people are AT LEAST as much of a part of the GOP's coalition as they are to the Democrats' coalition.  That should be beyond debate, but I guess it's not?

Yeah, I don't dispute that Rs are more likely to hold college degrees and be a little wealthier (the fact that they are all white helps in both of these regards).  But Democrats are more likely to hold postgraduate degrees, and that group of postgraduates in combination with the gigantic portion of the democratic party that is more identity-politics motivated than class-motivated has, I think, substantially if not totally neutered the class angle in the Democratic party in the past few decades.

Which is why in opinion polls Democratic voters (not really Democratic politicians) tend to favor protectionism less than the Republicans.

Why not, considering that it is just not true? Don't let RINO Tom fool you with his posturing - Obama won the college-educated vote both times. Everyone wants to pretend like their side is "smarter" - as in most issues (climate change, voter suppression, etc.), actual statistics back up our side.

LOL, you're ridiculous.  I'm not fooling or posturing anyone.  Mitt Romney won 51% of college graduates.  Republicans won college graduates HANDILY in 2010 and 2014.  Are these the statistics you're speaking of?

Democrats win postgrads, but they also win over 60% of high school dropouts.  To say statistics back up the claim that Democrats are "smarter" is holy-shlt-type stupid.

I'm ridiculous - yet you are the one measuring "college educated individuals" by taking only those with Bachelor's degrees. If undergraduate and postgraduates are added, Obama won the electorate. You're very right - the numbers do not lie.

Are you seriously using millennials' heavy Democratic lean and the most racially diverse college-aged population in history to try to draw a correlation between being college educated and being a Democrat?!  Surely, you're familiar with lurking variables.

[RINO Tom]

Yeah this thread is insane. "My party is better than yours because there are less plebs!!!"

For my part, I was simply correcting what I believed to be a falsehood.  I'm not saying one group is better than the other.

[RINO Tom]

The premise is faulty.  Liberals in America (certainly the elected democratic pols) are the possibly least protectionist and most economically right-wing of all of the OECD countries.

Protectionism is most popular among conservatives in America because there's a significant part of the coalition that is older and uneducated and therefore gets screwed the hardest by trade agreements.  Contrast with the upper middle class educated professionals that are a significant part of the Democratic base.

News to me and exit polls everywhere!

A sizable majority of voters with graduate degrees vote Democratic these days.

That by no means exclusively indicates a high income (finance majors with bachelor's degrees are going to make a lot more than education majors with a PhD), and it ignores the fact that college graduates as a whole still voted substantially Republican in 2014.  Let's not even get into the very, very clear evidence that Republican voting and a higher income are directly linked.

Affluent and educated people are AT LEAST as much of a part of the GOP's coalition as they are to the Democrats' coalition.  That should be beyond debate, but I guess it's not?

Yeah, I don't dispute that Rs are more likely to hold college degrees and be a little wealthier (the fact that they are all white helps in both of these regards).  But Democrats are more likely to hold postgraduate degrees, and that group of postgraduates in combination with the gigantic portion of the democratic party that is more identity-politics motivated than class-motivated has, I think, substantially if not totally neutered the class angle in the Democratic party in the past few decades.

Which is why in opinion polls Democratic voters (not really Democratic politicians) tend to favor protectionism less than the Republicans.

Why not, considering that it is just not true? Don't let RINO Tom fool you with his posturing - Obama won the college-educated vote both times. Everyone wants to pretend like their side is "smarter" - as in most issues (climate change, voter suppression, etc.), actual statistics back up our side.

LOL, you're ridiculous.  I'm not fooling or posturing anyone.  Mitt Romney won 51% of college graduates.  Republicans won college graduates HANDILY in 2010 and 2014.  Are these the statistics you're speaking of?

Democrats win postgrads, but they also win over 60% of high school dropouts.  To say statistics back up the claim that Democrats are "smarter" is holy-shlt-type stupid.

I'm ridiculous - yet you are the one measuring "college educated individuals" by taking only those with Bachelor's degrees. If undergraduate and postgraduates are added, Obama won the electorate. You're very right - the numbers do not lie.

Are you seriously using millennials' heavy Democratic lean and the most racially diverse college-aged population in history to try to draw a correlation between being college educated and being a Democrat?!  Surely, you're familiar with lurking variables.

Ah, so you'd rather exclude educated minorities and youth from the discussion to get the statistic that you would like. I'm very pleased with the emerging college-educated, racially and ethnically diverse Democratic majority.

Don't be obtuse.  I'm not excluding anyone, I'm stating that it is not education in and of itself that lends itself to more Democratic voting, and I think you know that.

As for your last sentence, LOL.  Believe what you'd like, buddy.

[RINO Tom]

Just for clarification, it isn't just American "liberals" Conservatives used to be very supportive of it. In fact, many traditional small government proponents were in favor of protectionism. It's rooted in the America Great Again philosophy.

Pretty simple, really: when American businesses were asking for and benefiting from protectionism, conservatives argued for such policies.  When businesses start pushing for free trade, conservatives supported free trade.  The motive is much more important than the means used.