Mercantilist Republicans

Here are the CAFTA "no" votes cast in the Senate on Friday. Pathetic. I only point out the Republican votes to once again highlight the blatant hypocrisy of the party that so readily insists upon exporting the wondrous ideals of "freedom" around the globe at the point of a gun, yet ever so readily balks when given the opportunity to encourage non-violent, voluntary cooperative action among peoples in the form of free trade. I suppose that Lindsey "Smoot-Hawley" Graham et al are just getting back to their roots as protectionist, Whigish, Lincolnian, BIG-government Republicans.

I admit that CAFTA is not a perfect expression of free trade, but is a starting point.

The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another. - Milton Friedman