International Angle: China Trade War?

Earlier today I bashed Romney on his Libya remarks.  Now, I'm inclined to do the same thing to Obama over his decision to file a trade complaint against China.  Political pandering to people who don't understand the full picture.

I'm not saying that China is on the up-and-up.  Not many people who have spent more than 15 minutes reading up on Chinese trade practices will vouch for their ability to play by the rules.  But at the same time, if you looked at the United States in a similar point during the transition from an agriculture to an industrial economy you'd see similar practices.

The difference is, we did it first.  Before there were established players to be hurt by it.

Obama is smart, smart enough to realize that no matter how many times he tattles on China it will never bring jobs back to America.  The economy of the 1940's, 50's, and 60's is gone, and gone forever.  The American worker is too expensive, too entitled, and oddly enough too uneducated to do the manufacturing jobs of 2012.

But you can't tell that to someone who doesn't want to flex with the times.  Someone who can't.  Someone who's just lost their job after 20 years, working in a plant that's now located in China.  They barely got their high school diploma, never built another skillset beside operating their assembly line station.  They're fucked.  The world is leaving them behind, and they're rightly scared about it.

Obama knows he can't help them--probably not, anyway.  What I see is Obama trying to help that person's kids.  Setting the country up for success down the road, since we've fallen behind on this leg of the race.  But that doesn't win elections.

As a nation, we've lost the ability to lay out a plan and work toward a goal.  We've been seduced by the instant gratification of drive thru food, iPods, Blackberry syncing.  If it's complicated, we want it simplified.  If it relies on a human doing their job, we want to automate it to eliminate risk.

That nation needs to be pandered to.  We all bitch about politicians, and how they behave.  But we created them, folks.  Maybe not you, maybe not me--but the Average American needs pandering.  They need to be consoled.  Whatever politician does this the best will win--even if they actually have nothing of value to offer.

The difference between Obama and Romney for me is pretty simple.  They're both politicians; they both pander; they both lie; they both have their flaws and their strengths.  But at the end of the day, Romney got rich by destroying healthy companies for short-term gain.  Obama got his start helping communities one person at a time.  One of these mind sets will set America up for continued greatness, and the other will send us down the path of the British Empire.

I'd really have to tell my child someday, "Kid, you're American.  Tone it down a bit."