Okay, the Democrats aren’t offering much of an agenda beyond an effort to paint George W. Bush as a one-man axis of evil. But insofar as there is a Republican agenda these days, it seems to consist mostly of walls – walls against immigration, walls against foreign investment, walls against Asian goods and even walls to opportunity.

One of the more shocking examples was South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham’s voyage to China, in company with New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, to threaten the Chinese government with monster tariffs if Beijing doesn’t force up the value of its currency. Fortunately, after getting the TV time they desired, they called off their protectionist jihad – for now.

But coming on the heels of the hysteria over the Dubai ports deal, which sent a strong signal that foreign investment in the United States isn’t as welcome as it used to be, the Schumer-Graham freelancing strongly suggests that America’s free-trading days are waning rapidly.

This pull-up-the-drawbridge mentality is even more starkly on display in the immigration debate. The Republican House approved a measure that would make illegal immigration a felony and build 700 miles of literal wall along the Mexican border. The Senate is struggling to come up with something more balanced, including a “path” to citizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegals already here, but Republicans are split and Democrats, sensing a political opportunity, are threatening to boycott the whole process.

Yes, it’s maddening to see Latino activists waving the Mexican flag in the heart of cities from Los Angeles to Detroit. And any country has a perfect right to protect its borders.

But good luck sending the foreign workers home and then keeping them out, unless you want to contract out the border enforcement job to the North Koreans. The 1986 immigration reforms sharply boosted spending on border security, too, but the number of illegals doubled.

Besides, the surge of immigration needs to be kept in perspective. It’s the result of some very good news, a long-running American economic boom that has kept unemployment of American citizens themselves at historic lows for much of the last three decades.

And speaking of the U.S. economic boom, Republican deficit hawks are working themselves into a lather over supposedly out-of-control spending. Yes, a veto or two might have been nice. But let’s keep a grip: Federal spending was 20.3% percent of gross domestic product last year – compared to 21.2 percent in 1989, the year the sainted Ronald Reagan left office. Federal debt held by the public was 65.7 percent, compared to 67.2 percent a decade ago.

There has been some encouraging legislative progress in recent days in extending several of the Bush tax cuts, including the crucial capital gains cut of 2003. But if Republicans allow the budget deficit to become the chief gauge of economic success, it will quickly find itself in the position of negotiating a whopping tax increase – a huge wall to the new jobs that have been steadily driving down unemployment. Does anybody seriously think a tax increase would be used to pay down the debt rather than increase spending?

Republicans, in short, are at risk of making themselves the handmaidens of protectionism, high taxes and fear of the “other.” That will succeed only in placing the party on the side of pessimism – and earn it another trip to the political wilderness.

Mr. Bray is a Detroit News columnist.