In 1988, Donald Trump appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and warned that unfair and unfree trade was damaging the domestic economy and particularly decimating the working class. Back then, Trump’s main concern was Japan, which was experiencing an “economic miracle” based on a huge increase in imports of cars, electronics, and other goods to the United States.
Today, the United States faces an economic foe that makes the threat posed by 1980s Japan look miniscule. The sudden and spectacular rise of China, especially since it was allowed to join the World Trade Organization in 2001, is arguably the greatest menace the United States has faced since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
Given that China is run by the ruthless Chinese Communist Party, one would assume that nearly all Americans would be rooting for the United States to win the so-called trade war between the world’s two largest economies. However, that is not the case.
According to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports and The Heartland Institute, nearly one in three likely Democratic voters actually want China, not the “Trump administration,” to prevail in the “tariff war.”
Let that sink in for a moment.
Specifically, 32 percent of Democrats “hope” that China emerges victorious whereas only 30 percent hope the Trump administration wins. On the other hand, 88 percent of likely Republican voters are rooting for the Trump administration while 4 percent hope China pulls it out.
That is a very stark political divide on what most would assume should be an issue that would receive widespread support from both sides of the political aisle.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), for Democrats who are ignorant of history, has committed mass murder on a scale unseen in world history. Although we will never know the exact number, it is estimated that 65 million Chinese died under the brutal regime of Mao Zedong, the founder of the CCP.
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During Mao’s grip on power, most of the damage perpetuated by the CCP was among its own citizens. That has changed. In recent years, the CCP, under the rule of Xi Jinping, has worked in cahoots with Mexican drug cartels to funnel deadly fentanyl into the United States. Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans are killed by fentanyl.
China is also waging digital war on America’s children through its highly addictive TikTok app, which is causing widespread mental health issues among American adolescents.
As mentioned above, the economic rise of China should be of utmost concern to all Americans, regardless of political persuasion. While hindsight is 20/20, I think most Americans acknowledge that it was a mistake to form strong economic ties with China decades ago under the assumption that doing so would lead to more freedom in China.
It appears that massive U.S. offshoring of production and manufacturing reinforced rather than weakened the CCP’s cement on power. The CCP stole U.S. technology to build an extensive surveillance network. It built a modern military capable of going toe to toe with the United States.
With all this being said, Democrats are still rooting for China. Or are they? I think the use of the term Trump administration instead of United States might have led a few or many Democratic voters to say they “hope” China wins simply because they could never hope the Trump administration wins anything.
This is how potent Trump Derangement Syndrome still is among far too many Democrats. It is sad and difficult for me to truly understand why, but a large portion of Democrats have such an intrinsic hatred for President Trump that they hope he loses, no matter how high the stakes are for America and our future.
This irrational animosity surpasses genuine policy differences. It is unlike anything I have seen in all my years observing politics. It never would have occurred to me to root against President Obama or President Biden when it came to anything having to do with China.
In an increasingly gray world, some things still are black and white. On the global stage, the United States is the good guy, and China is the bad guy. China employs slave labor. China has a network of concentration camps. China flouts international law. China covered up the COVID-19 pandemic!
I hope the sheer absurdity of the fact that almost a third of Democrats apparently hope China wins the trade war, which would probably lead to a new world order led by China, is the rock bottom point at which these disillusioned Democrats return to at least some sense of sanity.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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