Elder: Liberals Run from Label

Elder: Liberals Run from Label

No kidding.

Watch for them to use the term "progressive" whenever pressed. It probably tested better with focus groups.

The strange disappearance of the 'L' word

So, how does Kerry plan to avoid the liberal label? Why, he voted for NAFTA and GATT, enacted into law by former President Bill Clinton, and supported by every living ex-president as well as every living ex-secretary of state. Yet now he criticizes NAFTA and GATT, demanding that foreign countries impose labor and environmental standards. Now follow this. Kerry opposes Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, calling it "unilateralist." But one can unilaterally tell a Third World country to enact worker protection rights or that it must impose environmental standards.

Kerry, the anti-liberal, also blasts away at what he calls "Benedict Arnold CEOs"
-- those who "outsource" jobs to other countries. Never mind that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says free trade benefits the United States, and that, over time, American employment benefits "irrespective if we've had a trade deficit or a trade surplus, whether we've had high outsourcing or low outsourcing."

Regarding NAFTA, John Sweeney, a top trade analyst for the Heritage Foundation, found that a mere three years after NAFTA began, total trade between the U.S., Canada and Mexico had increased 43 percent, with U.S. exports to Canada increasing 33 percent, and exports to Mexico up 37 percent. "Hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs have not been destroyed," wrote Sweeney, "the U.S. manufacturing base has not been weakened, and U.S. sovereignty has not been undermined. Instead, total NAFTA trade has increased, U.S. exports and employment levels have risen significantly, and the average living standards of American workers have improved."