Rather than the coronavirus bogeyman, true free trade and international joint efforts can help create broader solutions for illness. Protectionism only serves to isolate us from those broader solutions.
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According to people who were against free trade, the coronavirus debunks free trade. Don’t believe me? Just read this quote from a recent Pat Buchanan column:
“In retrospect, was it wise to have relied on China to produce essential parts for the supply chains of goods vital to our national security? Does it appear wise to have moved the production of pharmaceuticals and lifesaving drugs for heart disease, strokes and diabetes to China? Does it appear wise to have allowed China to develop a virtual monopoly on rare earth minerals crucial to the development of weapons for our defense?”
Of course, Buchanan has spent his entire career already being against NAFTA, CAFTA, The World Trade Organization, The United Nations, NATO, NORAD, and basically anything that involves the United States being around another nation for any period of time.
Question: Why should I take these voices seriously? Buchanan alone already has a long list of credibility issues (I document in my book how he near certainly caused Bill Clinton to win in 1992 while working for the Bush campaign). But he’s not alone. Mike Cernovich has said the same thing, and he became famous in the Pizzagate movement and once argued date rape doesn’t exist.
Even if these men weren’t the literal worst, I would not take this argument seriously. Why? Because what man, might I ask, had his views changed by this event?
All the people who are claiming this is “the end to globalism” have been hardcore nationalists and purveyors of protectionism since the start. Buchanan, in particular, has called everything since his first failed presidential campaign “the end of globalism.” Maybe this illness will cause some people to rethink their views on free trade, but the evidence of this is spare.
I kind of see the evidence for this leading to immigration restriction (although isn’t that the oh-so evil politicization of a tragedy?). However, the idea this illness should lead to the end of free trade, and the full embrace of protectionism, is utter nonsense. Do these people think products can get sick? Products go through a heavy sterilization process before they end up on a store shelf. As such, the odds they contain a virus are unlikely.
So what should we do? Well, I think if we are going to consider the possibility of illness as such a threat, we should be looking for solutions as we did when faced by another threat: The Nazis.
Now hold on, I’m not arguing we go to war with germs. That would end up as badly as the war on drugs. What I’m talking about is coming up with the cure the same way we came up with a great military development: the atomic bomb.
For instance, the project involved the efforts of the governments of The United States, The United Kingdom, and Canada. Immigrants also played an important role, a number of which came from Axis countries like Germany.
A recent conspiracy theory says that Israel already knew about this and had been developing a vaccine long before the outbreak. Considering China has known about the virus for the past three years, I wouldn’t call that impossible. I would also say that if Israel finds a cure for the worst illness on the planet then, you know what, maybe the Jews should control the world.
The international community should be coming together to develop a cure for the Coronavirus and find other workable solutions for mitigating its spread. Instead, the President just signed an executive order mandating all medicine bought by the government be America made. Senator Hawley has tried to expand this to the market place. This devolving into deeper protectionism is the wrong move.
Think about this: When Saudi Arabia blockades Yemen to prevent medicine from getting in, almost everyone agrees that is wrong. When Israel does the same to Gaza, we all agree that it is wrong. Yet, when the President and his buddies try to put those boats outside our country, having us blockade ourselves more or less, that is considered “America First”?
Medicine should never be subject to protectionism. The Left, for once, is right when they talk about how ridiculous the price of medicine is nowadays. While they have typically been wrong regarding the solution, sometimes bright spots are seen. For instance, in 2017 Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation into Congress that would import drugs from Canada. Of course, Senator Cory Booker killed it. But it shows some on the Left are waking up.
If the President and his protectionist policies cause even one American to die from this disease due to lack of medicine, that is an impeachable offense. Not just that, but I would go so far as to say it is a crime against humanity.
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