U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, isn’t happy that President Trump imposed new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from America’s closest allies. She said his going “back and forth and back” is “difficult from a governance perspective.” While that may be a good description of Trump’s policy on trade, Murkowski’s relatively guarded criticism itself is an example of the inability of Congress itself to effectively govern America.
Just three years ago, Murkowski voted to give President Obama “fast-track” negotiating authority for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with 12 nations separated by the Pacific Ocean. Declaring herself a “free trader,” she said she believed it could benefit Alaska by “by opening new markets for our state’s exports and supporting thousands of jobs.” It was one of the few Obama policies which she and the majority of congressional Republican ever supported.
Then, within days of Trump’s inauguration, Murkowski witnessed the new president kill the whole without raising her voice for a year. This past February she and 25 of colleagues signed a letter urging him to prioritize re-engagement in the negotiations “so that the American people can prosper from the tremendous opportunities that these trading partners bring.”
If it was so tremendous, they shouldn’t have been silent that long.
It’s important to recognize that trade agreements don’t really create free trade zones. The purpose of negotiating them is to define rules and restrictions all sides can live by. For instance, the North American Free Trade Agreement did not remove all tariffs. It includes labor and environmental standards. It’s 348 pages long with another 1,300 pages of annexes for footnotes.
In that sense, “free trade” is a sort of doublespeak put into our language to turn a complex subject into a black and white issue. But because both parties have embraced the idea for 30 years or more, there’s not the usual partisan dividing line on this one. Instead, it shows up in in ways like Murkowski’s comparatively mild rebuke which would almost certainly been substantially harsher if Obama had imposed the tariffs.
To further illustrate my point, consider Vice President Mike Pence’s view on the subject. “Trade means jobs” he tweeted from the Indiana governor’s mansion in 2014. “The time has come for all of us to urge the swift adoption of the Trans Pacific Partnership.” But after being selected as Trump’s running mate, he no longer supported the TPP or even the idea of multi-nation trade pacts because America was “on the verge of electing one of the best negotiators in the world as President.”
Pence’s dramatic flip flop shows how conviction and principle take a back to his party’s pursuit of power. And it hints of the misguided notion that presidential power comes from the person, not the office.
Neither problem is new. Or exclusively Republican.
Democrats lambasted the secret electronic surveillance program initiated by President George W. Bush. But most turned a blind eye to the one authorized under Obama was leaked by Edward Snowden.
Obama formally ended Bush’s “extreme rendition” program of sending suspected terrorists to countries known to torture prisoners. But there’s evidence which suggests that instead of the CIA detaining the suspect, he permitted them to pass the information they’d gathered to the security services of those countries.
Democrats aren’t calling for the declassification of the report by the Special Task Force on Interrogations. They were silent while Obama prosecuted a record number of whistle blowers. And his of drones for targeted killings in Pakistan and Yemen.
If they criticized him at all, it was of the variety Murkowski directed at Trump. But if it had been Bush, their voices would have been loud and angry.
For principles and values to matter more than personality, they have to first take precedent over party loyalty. When they don’t, we risk becoming a nation of competing cults with either a deity or demon in the White House.
Trade isn’t thing only policy that Trump executed an about face in front of our allies. He did it with the Paris climate accord and Iran nuclear deal. It’s true the GOP had never supported either one. But they may have been guided as much by the flock of Obama hating voters they helped energize then the desire to practice good government that benefits all Americans.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. He contributes a regular “My Turn” to the Juneau Empire. My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.
