The Great Denial continued in Arizona last night as the four remaining Republican candidates participated in another debate. The debate lasted for about two hours, and I don’t remember hearing the words “free trade” or “imports” mentioned.
Does everyone associated with these debates, from CNN’s host, John King, to the four candidates, live in some alternate reality? How could they discuss the important issues facing our country without discussing the thousands of factories and millions of jobs that have been lost because of cheap imports?
The really depressing part of watching the debate is the fact that one of the remaining four Republican candidates, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul, will most likely be President Obama’s opponent in the election in November.
So, it appears that our choices for November will be President Obama, who has shown that he thinks free trade agreements with third-world countries are good for our economy, and a Republican candidate, who also thinks that free trade agreements with third world countries are good for our economy.
What kind of choice is this? Obviously, we have no real choice about the destruction of our economy.
Our big corporations have successfully kept the political discussion focused on taxes, balanced budgets, and social issues, which will not bring our factories and our jobs back to America.