On Oct. 31 The Blaze News Network published a piece descrying the Republican Senators who had “betrayed” Donald Trump by voting with the Democrats in rejecting his various tariff proposals. On Tuesday, 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports were vetoed by a vote of 52 to 48, with 5 Republicans enabling that result. On Wednesday, 4 Republicans supported the Democrats in also repudiating Trump’s intended economic assault on Canada. But while I generally agree with the conservative views supported by The Blaze, I find it’s designation of the Republicans in question as “traitors” the very sort of ideologically narrow-minded nonsense typical of the Left. If one is a Republican, must one support every tactic pursued by Mr. Trump?
Mitch McConnell, one of the dissidents, expressed his belief in the benefits of Free Trade as follows: ” The economic harm of trade wars are not the exception to history, but the rule.” Ironically, this was the point Ontario’s Premier was attempting to make in his much reviled ad showing Ronald Reagan making the very same point. In fairness, however, one must admit this is not a black and white issue, tariffs against products made in China, whose workers’ salaries are but a fraction of their American counterparts, being an arguably necessary defence of American jobs. Rand Paul, another one of the Republican “traitors,” said he had voted against Trump’s tariffs in defence of the Constitutional Principle that Congressional assent is mandatory to such initiatives, that Trump could not simply declare a “state of emergency” to justify his actions.
I am no constitutional scholar, but surely the Republicans who chose to question the tactics of their President ought to be praised for their courage rather than reviled for their infidelity. Indeed were those on both sides of the political divide to be motivated by their Conscience rather than their Biases, we would not be experiencing the ridiculous hostility that presently separates the Left from the “Right.” I put the word Right in quotation marks because I believe genuine Conservatism to be absolutely of the Centre, based on the Enlightenment Principle that Free Speech ought never to be stifled inasmuch as Man’s capacity for Reason must inevitably lead him to the Truth. In this context, the Republicans who took exception to some of Trump’s tariffs were simply contributing to this Dialectical Process!