Responses all around!

Carps,

I appreciate the level response, especially since my cynicism often boils over into my writing - like I said, it's a product of being stuck in this hellhole called "academia". Plus, I'm not usually the nicest writer anyway. I actually really enjoy discussing free trade, because it's an argument that we need to continue having on the conservative side. The US has actually historically been pretty protectionist when it comes to trade, so you have a lot of people on your side - don't be ashamed of the "protectionist" label, or disguise it with "sovereignty" (that sounds like Pat Buchanan, who is a conservative I've grown to despise). There are different degrees of protectionism, certainly, but I think your arguments place you firmly in that camp.

The arguments you raise, I think, are a couple - 1) free trade screws people and 2) free trade is dangerous for national security. There are many other arguments against free trade, but I believe these are the most common conservative arguments against them.

Many (modern) liberals believe in argument 1, and conservative opponents usually replace "people" with "Americans". I think that's what you mean, because it is obvious that lack of free trade would screw developing countries. In my toy example - if Coca Cola builds a factory in Guatemala in order to take advantage of cheaper labor there, they are "screwing" American factory workers out of jobs, but they are also providing a major boost to Guatemalans. (Incidentally, "fair trade"-ists would support the building of the factory, but also the regulation with respect to working conditions, wages, etc. -yay socialism!) Argument 2 is one that I may fall out of favor with more than a few on - I just believe that trade liberalization between all nations would lead to liberalization on many other levels. That includes Cuba, China, and other nations we see as dangers to national security. When you create interdependence, I think that reduces the likelihood of hostility.

But I want to know more about where you would stand with respect to free trade, and which argument against is more important to you (or if it's another one, then tell me). Do you favor NAFTA/CAFTA/free trade zones in our own hemisphere? Would you favor a free trade zone with close allies like our Anglospheric ones? Would it bother you less if you lost your job to an Aussie in Sydney instead of a "wog" in Bombay? If you didn't think free trade was enriching potential enemies like China, would you support it?

Personally, as I mentioned earlier, I don't understand the "you want to screw the American worker" position on free trade, when a liberal could use many of those same arguments (and indeed, does) when it comes to domestic policy. We conservatives are viewed as heartless jerks who could care less about Americans when we say "suck it up" to small business owners who can't compete with Wal-Mart. Replace Sprawl-Mart with "Wanliang Xu in Beijing" and suddenly it's time to start tut-tutting?

On immigration - you're right, amnesty might (and probably will) make things worse, unless we actually do something substantial with border security itself. It's still the most realistic thing to do, in my opinion, and I think it'd be hard to disagree there. Anyway, immigration is a subject that I tend to leave reason behind on sometimes, seeing how I'm the son of a naturalized citizen and my wife's grandmother was nearly deported half a century ago. That's why my compromise is to make special exceptions for Latin Americans in terms of legal immigration and just do what it takes to execute the law at the border itself. You can't just blindly reject anti-immigrant (not necessarily racist, there is a distinction) bias from the equation either - the US has a history of this deplorable bias with every major immigrant group - Irish, Germans, Italians, Chinese, eastern Europeans, and now Latin Americans.

I'd just like to add a little about Bush - yeah, he hasn't lived up to a lot, but in reality, we kinda got what we paid for. He never really shied away from his "big government conservatism" like I hoped he would. At least I got an excellent chief justice and a superb (Jersey born-and-bred) associate justice out of it. Not to mention outstanding justices like Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen, and William Pryor on the appellate courts. I can live with that. Like D says, we're probably forgoing some green chile on the McCain turd sandwich, but it's better than munching on pure liquid cowpie goodness that Obama or Clinton would give us.