Democrats on the Spot
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The walkout yesterday by 73,000 employees of General Motors certainly puts the Democrats on the spot. If the dispute is prolonged, our Nicholas Wapshott reports at page one, the Democrats will have to choose between supporting free trade or protectionism. And it would not be too much to say that the choice has the potential – though we’re still 13 months out – to be the defining question of the entire election, war and all. He reckons, and so do we, that job security is a top priority for voters from both parties. But if it’s protectionism that is going to tempt the Democrats, they can hand this election to Rudy Giuliani – or whoever the Republican nominee. Just ask Richard Gephardt. All eyes, moreover, will be on Mrs. Clinton, who backed her husband’s free trade policies only to start opposing free trade, with her vote in 2005 against the Central American Free Trade Agreement and, in June of this year, her objections to the free trade deal with South Korea. What are the stakes? One doesn’t have to read very far into “The Forgotten Man,” Amity Shlaes new history of the Great Depression, to grasp what kind of consequences can follow from a protectionist lunge after a decade of robust growth.