General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Since Free Traders believe that America should lower its standard of living to help the third world [View all]pampango
(24,692 posts)with huge defense spending increases rather than the success of "self-reliance" and discouraging trade). FDR ran against the republican Smoot/Hawley/Hoover tariffs in 1932 and then circumvented them with bilateral trade deals that negated Smoot/Hawley's effect.
There is no example of a country reducing poverty and unemployment by walling itself off. (I know it sounds like it should work, but there's a reason that it never does.) In fact the countries that have done the best at reducing inequality are precisely those that trade more than we do, e.g Canada, Germany, Australia, France, Sweden, etc. They have done this by enacting progressive laws that take care of their own people, not by walling off FOREIGNERS and their stuff.
How about the US enacts progressive taxes, an effective national health care system, an excellent safety net, starts to protect and promote strong unions and effectively regulates corporations and the financial industry. If, after that, inequality, poverty and unemployment are still a huge problem, then we go for tariffs, quotas and anything else that will keep 'them' way from 'us'.
Given the experiences of Canada, Germany, Australia, France, Sweden, etc., if we take care of our people like they do, we won't need to worry about building walls.
OTOH, we can ignore what works in other countries, demagogue foreigners (particularly the poorest ones) and see if we can't scare enough people to win elections if not actually solve any problems. (Teabaggers dislike international trade more than Democrats, so a strategy of blaming foreigners could have a 'bipartisan' aspect to it, as well.) Scare tactics work wonders for republicans in elections so why shouldn't we use them, too.