GOP Chases Trump Down the China Bashing Rabbit Hole

In the last post we looked at the ways in which Trump is a brilliant strategist in the best military traditions.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/08/do-we-really-want-to-elect-another-bush.html

He has totally controlled the tempo.

"I started thinking about this with the "anchor baby" rathole he's sent the GOP field scurrying down. Jeb among others gets tangled up in not wanting to use the term but also not wanting to get out-immigrant-hated by the other candidates for not using it. So he finds himself saying it but saying he's only quoting others saying it. Then he clumsily says it's mainly about "Asians" not "Mexicans." And then before he can even deal with that goof, Trump is on Twitter mocking himfor his "Asians" comment and also crapping again on Megyn Kelly and stomping her increasingly hapless boss Roger Ailes in a statement to Politico. And this itself comes almost simultaneously with Trump using grade school "Asian" speak to attack Chinese and Japanese trade negotiators who he claims walk all over 'loser' American leaders. "We want deal!"

"The dynamic was most palpable comparing Jeb's painful and drawn out efforts to grapple with and find some non-ridiculous rationale for his use or non-use of the phrase "anchor babies", lashed to the unpredictable tempo of impromptu reporter questions with Trump jumping from one attack to another on Twitter, entirely at his own pace and on his own terms, and sustaining a total indifference to whatever contradiction there may be between ridiculing Jeb for his offensive Asians comment and channeling an old Charlie Chan movie in one of his campaign speeches."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-william-t-sherman-of-crazy

Another rabbit hole he's led them down-ie, the GOP is again Elmer Fudd-is China bashing.

"With the GOP candidates falling all over each other to be tough on China,the New York Times has a good rundown of all the ways their China bashing is making them look ridiculous. Also:

"Rightly or wrongly, Mrs. Clinton is considered to be more confrontational with the Chinese than Mr. Obama has been…the Republicans know that, if Mrs. Clinton emerges as the Democratic nominee, it will be difficult to cast her as soft on China. A bigger problem may be in their own party: The American opening to China was, of course, a Republican president’s project. It is considered one of the greatest accomplishments of Richard M. Nixon’s checkered presidency, and today’s mainline Republican foreign policy takes a very nuanced view of balancing Chinese power."

"But no matter. The GOP candidates have apparently decided that demagoguing on China is the new way to be Trumpier than Trump."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/08/28/happy-hour-roundup-679/

Now on this issue, I'm not entirely sure how much I buy into this whole 'Getting tough on China narrative'-I mean isn't free trade supposed to be a good thing?

What's really embarssing for the GOP is that they are the party of free trade purists and yet they are all following Trump into talking like they want to go out and start the mother of all trade wars.

"Most have not tried. Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin recently called for the cancellation of next month’s state visit by President Xi Jingping. But in 2013, he did what most governors do: He traveled to China, promoted Wisconsin products there, hailed the importance of the Chinese market for American firms and had his photo taken with Chinese leaders. Former Gov.Rick Perry of Texas was there last September advertising his state as a business-friendly climate for Chinese investors."

"Donald Trump Jr., the candidate’s son, has been put in charge of new investments for the Trump hotel empire, including, according to the group’s website, deals in mainland China. When his father suggested the other day that the state dinner for Mr. Xi should be replaced by a McDonald’s hamburger, the Chinese must have been tempted to point out that they need no introduction to such American fare. There are more than 2,000 McDonald’s in China, including some a very short walk from Mr. Xi’s official residence."

"In a speech in South Carolina on Friday, Mr. Rubio presented a familiar list of grievances with Mr. Xi’s government: a “campaign to push America out of Asia”; the development of “weapons that threaten our bases and naval assets” (the Chinese say the same about the United States.); and an effort “to make the 21st century a Chinese Century” (though American politicians have no compunctions about calling it an “American Century”)."

"He talked at length about Chinese efforts to round up human rights activists, oppress Christians, detain dissidents and control the Internet. “This is a disgrace,” he concluded. “And we must stand against it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/us/politics/chinas-vulnerability-is-a-test-for-us-presidential-candidates.html

I've never bought into China bashing. But for the GOP to get into this narrative makes them look ridiculous as it's 180 degrees away from their free trade ideology. 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/26/politics/donald-trump-bernie-sanders-free-trade-2016/

However, listen to this Reason piece about Mitt Romney in 2012:

"Take trade: Both candidates agreed about the need for energy independence, fewer imports, and—above all—more retaliation against Chinese currency manipulation."

"They are both wrong. But Romney's shrillness on China is more troubling. Obama is only pandering to his party's base, but Romney seems at odds with his party's free-trade beliefs."

"Every president since Richard Nixon has promised and failed to deliver energy independence—and that's a good thing. When America imports more oil than it produces, it's usually because foreign oil is cheaper. Attempts to ramp up domestic energy production artificially—through subsidies and politically correct renewables such as wind or solar (Democratic plan) or ethanol (Romney's promise)—only makes American consumers poorer and kills American jobs by drawing resources away from their most productive uses. There is only one noble goal for any energy policy: cheaper, baby, cheaper."

"Equally illiterate is the notion that the hoarding of dollars—by selling more to other countries (exports) than we buy from them (imports)—is the road to riches. Adam Smith debunked this mercantilist fallacy over 200 years ago pointing out that countries maximize their wealth when they trade what they value less for what they value more—whether money or wine."

"Yet this fallacy lived on as Romney and Obama each strove to out-China-bash the other. Obama bragged that he had imposed tariffs to deter Chinese tire imports and, with his auto bailout, was selling cars to China rather than buying them from it (a claim that is both false and silly)."

"Romney harrumphed that Obama hadn't done enough to stop China from taking away American jobs by deliberately undervaluing the renminbi to keep its exports cheap. He promised to declare China a "currency manipulator" on day one, something candidate Obama promised in 2008 but never did."

http://reason.com/archives/2012/10/30/romney-has-the-edge-in-the-bipartisan-pr

China bashing is actually very popular on the Right as well as the Left and Center too as Ross Perot showed. So when Trump goes in full tilt on getting tough on China this is smart as there are a lot of voters who this appeals to.