Sorry to say this but I feel Obama's strong promotion of the TPP

[pampango]

75. No he promoted trade because he thought it promoted peace and prosperity not just

for the US but for other countries as well. Modern progressive countries treat trade the same way which is why the trade much, much more than the US does AND have strong unions and healthy middle classes.

And FDR (and modern progressive countries) promoted international governance of trade rules so that the US and other countries would not enact unilaterally on trade as his republican predecessors had done.

If FDR had been mainly concerned about the US retaining the dominance of global trade that we had when Europe and Asia were devastated from war, he would have not pushed the idea of many countries sharing in establishing and governing the rules of trade. He would have tried to push to have the US use its dominance to make sure that trade rules were always pro-US by having the US alone govern the rules of trade for as long as possible. That is not what he did.

Global trade now is anti union and anti worker.

No. Global trade is not anti-union and anti-worker. If is was, progressive countries that trade much, more than we do would be cesspools of weak unions and poor workers. They are quite the opposite. They know what FDR knew. You support strong unions, adopt high/progressive taxes, regulate business effectively and provide a good safety net and your workers are well off. You don't live in fear of foreigners.

Unfortunately, all economic activity in the US is now "anti union and anti worker" just as it was pre-FDR in the 1920's. Most of our economy (about 77%) has nothing to do with trade. With 'right-to-work', regressive taxes, deregulation and shattered safety nets, all of our economic activity is anti-99%. Blaming the small part of our economy that is trade-related for our problems, plays right into the hands of RW populists and the tea party who hate all international agreements and cooperation.