The “elite consensus” for an America with “open markets, open borders” and “open trade” disregards the needs of America’s working and middle class, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) says.
During a speech to Young America’s Foundation’s 41st annual National Conservative Student Conference, Hawley slammed the “reigning consensus” of Washington, D.C.’s ruling class that asserts free trade and endless immigration are vital to meet the needs of corporate leaders, the business lobby, and the donor class while ignoring its impact on middle-class Americans.
Hawley said:
This sort of reigning consensus, the conventional wisdom of the leadership elite tells us things like patriotism are dangerous, too much emphasis on patriotism and nationalism, and the good things about America, that’s narrow-minded, that could even be bigotted… [Emphasis added]
The same consensus says that we need to pursue and embrace economic globalization and economic integration at all costs — open markets, open borders, open trade, open everything no matter whether it’s actually good for American national security or for American workers or for American families or for American principles. [Emphasis added]
These are the same people who tell us we need to have open immigration at whatever levels so that we can have more labor in the country that unfortunately drives down … wages for working Americans. These are the same people who want you on your college campuses to not say anything that offends anybody for heaven’s sake, who say that we can’t use trigger words … this is the elite consensus that has governed our politics for too long and what it has produced is a politics of elite ambition. [Emphasis added]
Hawley said the ruling class and their allies in the corporate class have long advocated national policies that help Americans become like them — that is, moving to metropolis cities on the coasts, taking corporate jobs, and leaving behind the traditions of faith, family, and community.
“Here’s what our leaders have said to the country and to the middle of America, they’ve said that ‘If you want to go and start a tech company in Silicon Valley, then we’re all for you,'” Hawley said.
“‘If you want to become elite, like us, go to an elite university, go to an elite graduate school, and embrace our elite point-of-view on the world,'” Hawley said the ruling class’s opinions of the middle class.
“‘If you want to put career achievement over community, if you think that change is more important than tradition, if you are skeptical of things like faith and family, that’s great. If that’s the views that you hold, that’s great for you, and our politics will help you get there. It’ll help you succeed.'”
Americans who choose a different route, Hawley said, are ostracized and looked down upon. Hawley asked:
But what if your ambition is not to start a tech company? What if your ambition is to work in the family business. What if your ambition is to raise a family in the town where you grew up? What if your ambition is to create something that you can pass on to your kids? What if one of your most prized values is your love of this country and believe that we are a good and decent people whose heritage is worth celebrating? What if that’s you?
Well, if it is, then this town and the leadership of this country has said, ‘You’re on your own. And you’re either backward or you’re just pathetic, but we don’t have anything to say to you,’ And it is time for that to change. And the 2016 represents, I believe, the people of this country from the middle of our society — the backbone of the country — saying, ‘We want to be heard, we want to be respected, we want this country to stand for the principles it was founded on and we’re going to do something about it.’ And that’s our challenge now.”
For decades, free trade has helped gut working and middle-class jobs and stripped whole middle American towns of their industries and livelihoods. Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed and China was allowed to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO), nearly five million American manufacturing jobs and 50,000 manufacturing facilities have been eliminated from the U.S. economy.
Meanwhile, the Washington, DC-imposed mass immigration policy — where more than 1.5 million mostly low-skilled foreign workers are admitted to the U.S. to compete against Americans every year — has been a boon to corporate executives, Wall Street, big business, and multinational conglomerates, as every one percent increase in the immigrant composition of an occupation’s labor force reduces Americans’ hourly wages by 0.4 percent. Every one percent increase in the immigrant workforce reduces Americans’ overall wages by 0.8 percent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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