Democrats Support Fair Trade

From David Sirota...

Here’s the Financial Times today:

“The US Congress will reject two trade deals agreed with Colombia and Peru, leading Democrats said, in a significant blow to President George W. Bush’s agenda for his final two years in office. Democratic lawmakers drafted a letter to Mr Bush on Tuesday night signalling their opposition to the pacts because they lacked tougher labour standards.”

Why is this happening? Here’s Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in the Washington Post:

“The message of this election says to me that all of these trade agreements need to be renegotiated. When a plant of 300 people closes in a town of 20,000, it hurts families and destroys communities.”

This is really incredible. Suddenly, the progressive agenda on trade is ascending. Suddenly, the Bob Rubins, the Gene Sperlings, the Tom Friedmans and the rest of the neoliberals are being steamrolled. Suddenly, Democrats have found a backbone on globalization, pushing for policies that lift the world up, rather than those that create a race to the bottom.