“What will it say if this strong friend of America, who has done all the right things to try to bring his country to stability, democracy, and prosperity — and has done so as an avowed friend of America, fighting terrorists on one side, trying to demobilize paramilitaries on another, and standing strong against very hostile anti-American states and forces in Latin America — what will it say if the United States turns its back now on Colombia?”
Thus spoke Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on April 9th. The strong friend of America is Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Valez. The impetus for the words is the underhanded machinations of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi organized a vote to shoot down a rule that Congress must vote on any trade agreements within 60 days. Needless to say, the Democrats won by voting the measure down.
What this means is that the decision on the proposed trade agreement with Columbia will very likely be shunted off until next year — when the Democrats anticipate (although, it seems to me, with less and less reason) having a newly installed Socialist President of the United States, and that President would never agree to a Free Trade Deal with a capitalist American ally that fights against the degradation of the Democrats’ beloved jackass Hugo Chavez, President (Dictator) of Venezuela and orchestrator of that nation’s ever more failing economy and crumbling society.
The Democrats (the Socialists) have a love affair with Chavez because he appeals to their perversely proud guilt — their sense that all that’s wrong with the entire planet is the United States — and, even more importantly, he despises the W.
It would be one thing if the Democrats set forth some legitimate criticisms of the proposed agreement with Colombia. There are times when “free trade” agreements need to be re-worked so as to be fair trade agreements. But as always, the Democrats aren’t capable of appealing to reality.
Instead, this is clearly about pandering to unions and special interest lobbyists who can’t bear the thought of any deal that would perhaps allow their competitors to prosper or peel away a layer of their safety (by making them compete instead of lobby).
With the poverty-and-corruption-breeding Chavez trying to stoke the flames of a “Socialist Revolution” in South America – including especially in places like his Columbian neighbors – it is extremely important to American foreign policy and, hence, national security interests that open and prosperous trading with an American ally in the region be supported.
Open trade agreements are not only prosperous for both interested parties, they are also signs of goodwill.
But the Democrats are ignorant of history and now, for pandering and petulant reasons of their own, are trying to doom America to repeat it, at least in principle (which soon enough leads to practice anyway).
Hoover and Smoot-Hawley are historical names that mean nothing to them. But then again those names are from nearly 80 years ago – ancient (and therefore irrelevant) history to the “progressives”.