The truth is that almost every conservative economist concedes that free trade is a better economic policy that brings the most prosperity to the most people. But free-trade purists have their work cut out for them. For one thing, the benefits to consumers are dispersed, while the alleged benefits of protectionism (for example, saving a factory) are concentrated. This makes free trade seem esoteric and theoretical, while protectionism seems simple and tangible.
For this reason, support for free trade has always been an inch deep and a mile wide. Unlike one of the key issues (like life or taxes), free trade hasn’t been a moral issue for most conservatives. Aside from a handful of committed free traders, it was always a box you checked on a list of policy preferences―but not a hill anyone wanted to die on.
“I think Steve Moore, Grover Norquist, [and Larry] Kudlow, they’re all sort of supply-side, low-tax guys,” said Daniel Ikenson, a free-trade advocate who works at the libertarian Cato Institute. “So that’s their primary issue, I think. I think they’re rationalizing to a certain extent.”
The real story here isn’t whether free trade is good or bad—or whether it’s a deal-breaker—but that so many prominent free-traders have given up so easily.
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