Orser67
Junior Chimp
Posts: 5,946
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« on: June 22, 2018, 04:37:33 PM » |
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Prior to WW2, the Deep South was the strongest base in the U.S. for free trade-ism; the lack of a manufacturing base meant that they didn't benefit from protective tariffs, and their dependence on exporting cotton and other goods meant that they suffered from any policy that worked to restrict trade. The tariff was always controversial, but it (re-)emerged as one of the top issues in the period after the the War of 1812, when Democratic-Republicans like Clay imposed a protective tariff.
Between 1828 and the Civil War, the Deep South generally voted Democratic, and the Democrats were generally more in favor of free trade. Between the Civil War and the Great Depression, the South was overwhelmingly Democratic, and free trade was perhaps the most important policy favored by Democrats. Cleveland and Wilson both presided over reductions in the tariff, while Republican presidents generally raised the tariff or kept it in place (Taft being the lone exception).
I'm honestly less knowledgeable about the tariff after WW2, but my understanding is that even parts of the Deep South adopted pro-free trade views after World War 2 for various reasons, with the big one being the abandonment of isolationist/non-interventionist views.
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