The Bait and Switch

[BainsBane]

18. Politics as usual, for sure

However, your argument seems to be based on the assumption that there are a large number of people who think like folks on DU. I suspect the numbers of people who even know let alone think about TPT are relatively small.

I would assume that the President supports TPT. If he didn't, he wouldn't have dispatched emissaries to negotiate the treaty. My last point wasn't about Obama as much as the general stance toward free trade deals by the two parties. I remember all this with NAFTA, and it got more attention in the media because of Mexico and the fears and prejudices associated with Mexicans. Without strong unions, there isn't a significant political base to enforce opposition to such deals. And the fact is today capital is global. That, I think, is probably what is most unsettling for people and has led to recent concerns about "corporatism," when in fact moneyed interests have controlled this country since it's outset. Now capital has no nation. It exists outside the nation state, is loyal to nothing and no one but profit. It has upended social relations of production and expectations concerning the state and its relationship to citizen.