To imagine that America would become protectionist like this, to this extent, with tariffs of all things, predicated on—you brought up Peter Navarro—just the harebrained craziness. Do you remember, like, when they rolled out the tariffs and they’d been made by ChatGPT, and there was no rhyme or reason to it? It’s just some kind of caprice with these guys.
They have some idea that tariffs are going to be good for us. Then we have the TACO period, of Trump chickening out on really doing tariffs. And now here we are, with rising prices. And no truck driver, no matter how made-in-the-USA he is, is going to say that we need to shut out this trading partner of Canada. We just have a sentimental attachment to Canada that can’t be broken.
Sargent: Well, let me ask you this, Virginia, just to close this out. Is it possible that a decisive victory for Democrats in the midterms sends a renewed message to the rest of the world that we’re trying to get onto the right side of decency and really trying to shrug off this catastrophe that Trump has become for us? I’m not sure if the rest of the world is ready to give us a pass next time.
Heffernan: I worry about that. And certainly at the midterms, I mean, I’m sure they will cheer on any impeachment efforts, or any efforts to undo, you know, Trump’s disastrous policies toward other countries.
Source: newrepublic.com
