RandFan said:
I'm not sure what to say Capel,
I can't understand the above statement.
My point is simple. It's disconcerting that your assumptions may be so deep-rooted you can't register a point that questions them. Constant vigilance and all that.
My point is that sectional interests - in this case, oil interests - may be defining so-called national interests. That may be down to naivety, the "What's good for GM is good for America" effect. Policies which benefit them, their families, most of the people they mix with socially can easily be mistaken as beneficial for all. They may also be more cynical reasons. If that
were the case - and it surely should be considered - how would things look any different?
Bush and the Republicans are lobbied hard from all points of industry. He received a lot of support from the business sector for his reelection.
And, with his rich-oriented tax policies, he pays them back handsomely. They might have discounted the down-side of sectional policies against that very clear and present benefit.
Bush doesn't have the support of Unions or Education or the traditional Democratic organizations.
His protectionist policies are aimed at changing that. Not that he really needs them, as it turns out.
He gets his support from Business. I can't imagine that they would do that if Bush was so insulated from them that he only cared about oil. If you are interested there is a plethora of information on the internet of Bush's efforts on behalf of US industry.
The effectiveness of which can be seen in the trade deficit.
You can make what ever assumption you want. I suppose no president has ever represented US industry or the American people if that is what you want to assume.
It's a mistake to think that there is any one best set of policies that balances everybody's interests with exact justice. There are all kinds of trade-offs : capital/labour, primary production/manufacturing, trade/ production, polluter/polluted, finance/debt-peons, and so on. Plenty of room for sectional interests to intrude, especially if they are strongly concentrated at the centre of power. Which is, I think, the case with oil in the current administration.
I find no evidence to assume that a Republican president doesn't care about US industry. On the contrary I see him pushing hard for industry in many areas.
I don't buy the assumption that Bush is anything other than voter-friendly beefcake. I see no evidence that he has the slightest experience or understanding of industry (and I do mean that personally). There's plenty of evidence in neo-con literature that
they don't care about US industry. There's a whole New Economic Paradigm, New Empire, New American Century. You must have heard. Industry justs leads to unions, and is best left to foreigners.
Perhaps you didn't know about Bush's efforts on behalf of the Steel industry.
Given the 3,000 jobs they cost just half-a-mile awy from me, and thousands more at Llanwern in Newport, funnily enough, I did. I also read the business pages.
... maybe you don't know that Bush has been critisized for being too much of a protectionist for US industry
Maybe you're a bit loose with the "maybes". I thought I came across as keeping up with worldly matters. I'm very well aware that protectionism has been one of the great constants of US history. Protection of steel waned very quickly when the US car manufacturers weighed in - something that the Bush team apparently hadn't reckoned on. Not much understanding of industry being demonstrated there.
Now you can argue, as the author does, that protectionism hurts American industry in the long run but you can't argue that Bush is ignoring American industry. That is just demonstrably untrue.
What does the trade deficit demonstrate? "White House Sends Someone on Jolly to Geneva" doesn't
really get it done, does it? Things like a healthy, educated population, a good science and research base, a financial system that understands the needs of industry, tax-policies that encourage productive investment get it done.
Having a President who questions evolution and seems at his most comfortable among blissed-out believers in his god-given mission doesn't get it done either. It doesn't help when said President probably doesn't understand what's being done in his name. But his Saudi friends no doubt approve, and he's more in tune with them than with the average steel-worker. (Ooops, class politics creeping in there ...)
