Standing Fast

Chris Slevin and Todd Tucker at the Democratic Strategist show that 2006 was not only a good year for the Democrats but was a great year for advocates of fair-trade.

"In the midterm elections, a net sum of 7 Senate and 30 House seats flipped from the anti-fair trade to the fair trade column. Moreover, as our research shows, most of those Democratic candidates that made a strong fair trade message a campaign priority won, while most of those that did not--including many high-profile candidates supported by the national party--lost. (A "fair trade" position supports strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards in the core text of trade agreements, is against harmful investment and protectionist pharmaceutical patent rules, and is open to replacing fast track with a more democratic alternative.)"

Back in the early 1990's, criticism of unfettered economic globalization was viewed by most pols as the reserve of right-wing populists like Pat Buchanan and Ross Perot and declining blue-collar unions while "New Democrats" like Clinton were its great advocates. Remember when the Clinton campaign subcontracted out Al Gore to take on Perot on the merits of NAFTA? Things have changed.

As Slevin and Tucker shows, 2006 will be the year when the tides shifted back to a pro-fair trade position inside the Democratic Party. And according to them, fair-trade isn't just the right response to globalization; its good politics.

"Between the 2004 and 2006 elections, in their voting record and messaging, Democrats reconnected with middle-class economics for the first time since the Clinton administration wheeled and dealed NAFTA through Congress in 1993, a move that blurred the line of economic policy differentiation between the parties. The 2005 vote on CAFTA, a Bush priority expanding NAFTA to Central America, was framed as a referendum on NAFTA's decade of lived damage both in the United States and in Mexico. The Republican Party became owner of NAFTA's legacy when just 15 House Democrats supported CAFTA, compared to the 102 Democrats who voted for NAFTA. The Senate CAFTA vote was uniquely tight with 45 senators voting against it. And all congressional Democrats said to be exploring 2008 presidential bids voted against CAFTA--including several who had supported NAFTA over a decade earlier. And in July 2006, most Democrats also voted against a NAFTA-style pact with Oman."