A Referendum on Globalism

As Tuesday draws near, there seems to be a collective sigh of relief that it will all soon be over – the nastiness, pettiness, the attack ads – all of it.  Just make it go away.

But such sentiments trivialize what this election is really all about.  I wonder how many really grasp why it’s been such a bitter fight and what’s really at stake.  Tuesday isn’t just another election, where we pick from a pair of cookie-cutter candidates who aspire to be the next bench-warmer president, the next stuffed shirt to make nice around the punch bowl at scripted G20 summits.  The very soul of America is at stake.

For the first time in seven decades, since the signing of the Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 that ushered in the New World Order and relegated the U.S. to the role of host in a global host-parasite relationship, and perhaps for the last time, we have a chance to put America on a new track.

It’s impossible to understate the damage that’s been done.  This year will mark the 40th consecutive year that the U.S. has suffered a trade deficit.  During that time, our trade deficit has drained over $13 trillion from our economy and accounts for every single dollar of our national debt since 1975.  To put that into perspective – what the loss of $13 trillion has done to us – here’s what it means in terms that we can all understand:

• Globalism has been directly responsible for dismantling the manufacturing sector of our economy, wiping out approximately 10 million manufacturing jobs and another 10 million jobs in supporting industries.
• It has transformed the United States from the world’s preeminent industrial power into an economic skid row bum that literally has to beg the world for the funds to keep our economy afloat.
• Climb to the top of the highest building and take a look around.  Almost everything you see – as far as you can see – is now owned by foreign entities.  Every single mortgage, small business loan, new car loan, the financing of everything you can imagine, has been bundled into securities and sold to foreign investors desperate to find profitable ways to plow their trade dollars back into the American economy.
• Globalism has been directly responsible for the elimination of benefits like pensions and health care.
• It is directly responsible for the bleak job prospects faced by our college graduates.
• It is directly responsible for the crushing student debt that our kids now face.
• It is directly responsible for our crumbling infrastructure.
• It is directly responsible for the Great Recession of 2008 and for the countless foreclosures, bankruptcies and destroyed lives in its wake.
• It is directly responsible for turning China into an existential threat to our country.
• It is heavily responsible for the lion’s share of global warming, exporting manufacturing from the U.S. where environmental laws were strict to nations who scoff at such laws and pollute with reckless abandon, not to mention the burning of five billion barrels of oil each year to power container ships carrying goods that could otherwise be made locally.
• Globalism has become a corrupt scheme of the elite – the top 1% – to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.
• Instead of raising the living standards of all as the starry-eyed economists of the 1940s envisioned, globalism instead has become a poverty-sharing program, draining the resources of the United States and fattening the coffers of corrupt regimes.

Like practically every other American, I have never lived in an America that wasn’t under the thumb of the corrupt World Trade Organization or its predecessor – GATT.  I’ve spent my entire life watching it erode America’s economy.  At least I can remember what it was like before the bulk of the damage was done.  Most Americans don’t even have that.

On Tuesday we have a chance to put an end to this crap.  If you have been affected by any of the things I’ve listed above, this is your chance to dramatically change your situation.  The difference in candidates couldn’t possibly be more stark.  On the one hand, Hillary Clinton is an unabashed globalism and open borders advocate who will accelerate our demise under the New World Order.  On the other hand, Donald Trump has promised to completely dismantle it, tearing up these stupid trade agreements and using tariffs to drive manufacturing back to the United States, restoring America as an industial powerhouse.  Sure, you’d have to hold your nose as you mark your ballot and accept him with his numerous warts, but we’ll have another chance to swap him out in a few years for a more palatable version.  But this may be your last chance at the changes that he’s promised.  America’s future hangs in the balance.  It’s in your hands on Tuesday.