Humans seem to have a deeply ingrained lynch mentality that is a tendency to respond to the situation without evaluating the facts first and without thinking what the resulting consequences might be. Most of us recognize this as an individual trait, but it can be a group trait as well. Recently, the transpacific partnership trade agreement (TPP) has divided the Democratic Party with Senator Elizabeth Warren leading the ‘lynchers’ and President Obama being the ‘lynchee’. What was particularly striking was it appeared that Obama and the Republican Part set aside their history differences.
When a group of voters takes a lynch stance, the term tyranny of the majority applies. Everyone in the mob votes to hang this or that person for this or that crime. What is the President Obama’s crime? Senator Warren and her followers are accusing him of committing a hanging offense. In addition, the uniting force or rational behind her and her followers versus the Presidents position is a very revealing problem in terms of how government should work versus how it works.
This scenario is very strange because the President and labor unions are clearly on the opposite side of this issue. There has to be a solid reason. Every union leader in the country and many if not most liberals united behind Senator Warren. Past international trade agreements have caused our country to lose manufacturing factories, jobs and increased our trade deficit. President Obama is saying that is true; however, international corporations negotiated past trade agreements. In addition, our government even under Democratic presidents ratified them. His position is that he is not like previous presidents; he includes many clauses that protect wages, the environment, and workers health, for example. Some of his opposition says that is so, but the agreements are structured to ignore such opposition and so the argument rages. Of course, a number of spineless, undecided, elected officials who hide behind the ruse that the agreement is secret so they cannot make a judgment. It is not, every senator has access to the entire agreement as negotiators do their job. Avoiding making a decision is reminiscent of the climate change debate; how many times have we heard a cowardly politician from an energy producing state say, “I am not a scientist . . .”
As a liberal trying to look at the workers of the world, the same way I look at workers in the United States. I have to reveal that I am a dual citizen; because of this, I came to know the rules of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Perhaps because of this, my view of the TPP is different. That agreement would make it better for workers in the countries of our trading partners. In the United States, workers and their unions fear a loss of jobs and lower wages. Their displeasure with the agreement they base on workers selfishness. We are all greedy. The offset of lower prices in markets on imported products, workers do not see in light of making it better for them.
President Obama is looking at the world through different colored glasses; we call it macroeconomics. The world can continue to struggle with war after war, or we can choose to live in peace. Our President, the great man he is, sees the road to peace is by establishing fair competition. Opening up world markets includes opening up our markets to the world. Of course, this would be devastating if done wrongly. With Obama at the helm, I feel we can safely take a step in that direction. To be candid, he is the only leader we have ever had that I would trust to do this. If he opened the negotiations to Congress, the results would be disastrous; workers and unions would destroy it and enterprises would dominate any agreement as the have in the past. His steady hand is critical. Contrary to what his Republican detractors see, he wants fair business competitive with countries and not military domination as our inglorious history indicates we have done in the past; as Stephen Kinzer points out in, Overthrown: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (2006). We have used military force to overthrow many, many governments to gain business interests. Charles Krauthammer’s book, Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passion, Pastimes, and Politics (2013) gives a synopsis of the philosophy of International Republican greed in all of its disgusting trimmings.
Workers in my adopted country did not have social security. I saw their dire need and witnessed their silent suffering up close. They worked for wages so low that it would make an employer in the United States blush. After I had tried to double the wages of my farm workers, others ranchers came to me and complained bitterly that I made it hard for them. When a worker quits or I did no need them, I willingly paid pension money based on how long they had worked for me according to the ILO rules plus a bonus. Although there was no rule or law forcing me to do so, I paid for their healthcare and for sending their children to school: those who did not live on the ranch, I picked up in the village and brought them to work every day.
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