I have never blamed the poor of Mexico, China or India for corporate America's avarice and our political elites' cowardice.
--Lou Dobbs
All that is wrong with Lou Dobbs is captured in this quote. He would like to believe what he said, and his intentions I'm sure are quite honarable, but as the late Milton Friedman said, "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentions rather than their results."
Trade restrictions are bad, bad, bad for the poor of Mexico, China and India. They are bad, bad, bad for American consumers who have to pay more for Mexican, Chinese and Indian goods. In fact, trade restrictions only help "dominant special interests" like trade unions and low-productivity industries.
Its ironic that Dobbs would lament "our political elites' cowardice" and then advocate giving those political elite more power over the economy. We should reward their cowardice by allowing them to decide which industries get protection and which special interests get 'subsidies'?
No, we should judge policies by their results not their intentions. Trade protection results in more poverty and an empowerment of already entrenched powers. Protection in its effect, not its intention, is an unmitigated bad.
And Lou, We The People established the Constitution in part as a check on populist whim. We wouldn't need a Constitution if the knee-jerk reactions of the people was always sovereign.