For some reason this election season, Republicans think the golden ticket to face an underdog Democrat in November’s general elections is to argue to primary voters that you are President Donald Trump’s biggest ally.
From top to bottom, GOP candidates have run commercials touting the Trump bona fides, some with success and others not so much.
It is probably true that Trump remains very popular in Alabama, much higher than in the rest of the country. Off to the side, however, there is grumbling over the president’s trade policy among some principle players in Alabama politics.
At the very top is Gov. Kay Ivey. Ivey argued in a letter sent to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross earlier this month that was first reported by Al.com’s William Thornton the state could lose “approximately 4,000 jobs as a result of automotive tariffs.”
That caps off other gestures from Ivey, including remarks she made at a public appearance in Etowah County on Tuesday claiming to have directly communicated her tariff concerns to Vice President Mike Pence, and a statement she issued last week warning of the consequence of the trade policy.
Elsewhere around the state beyond the automotive industry, other alarm bells are sounding over Trump’s trade policy.
Alabama farmers have expressed some concern over the effects they could have on the soybean and peanut prices.
Last week, several local Alabama newspaper heads took to Washington, D.C. and had meetings with members of the state’s congressional delegation to protest tariffs on Canadian newsprint, which has sent ripples through the entire market and forced newsprint prices to increase.
Just as the saying goes that warns against quarreling with “men who buy ink by the barrel,” it is not advisable to quarrel with those that buy newsprint by the roll.
If Trump is indeed popular, why isn’t anyone in Alabama defending his trade policy?
Perhaps Alabama Republican affinity for the president has less to do with policy and more to do with his style.
However, there could be an appealing case to be made for taking an aggressive tack with regards to trade.
Some places in Alabama have been brought to their knees by the coming of globalization in the name of free trade. Former textile mill towns like Monroeville and Alexander City were brutalized by the trend and never recovered.
With the current economic conditions, it’s difficult for these places to reestablish their industrial base. For that reason, Trump’s policies have a broad appeal. It may not be the cure-all, but there is something emotionally appealing to beleaguered Rust Belt-type places for the Trump administration to take on foreign powers that manipulate their currency or artificially depress their wages to gain an unfair advantage.
If China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union or any other nation is levying tariffs on U.S. imports, there’s an impulse to return the favor, and the election of Trump in 2016 was a show some Americans were willing to act on that impulse.
As this has unfolded since inauguration, overall the American economy is doing well. It doesn’t seem to be any one particular thing the Trump administration has done that people can point to and credit. Even before he signed the tax legislation last year, the U.S. economy was trending upward.
For now, it would behoove the Trump administration to defend the policy. Whether one agrees or disagrees with tariffs, there is a case to be made for them.
However, no one is making it.
Rather than showing how this is going to revive the auto industry in Michigan, we’re told how it threatens Alabama and Tennessee. Instead of showing tariffs are going to bring a newsprint paper mill back online, we’re seeing the price of the local newspaper increasing. Soon, you may need a roll of quarters to buy the latest issue from an old-school newspaper machine.
Will this impact the president’s overall popularity in Alabama? Could it give Democrats ammunition to use against their Republican general election opponents that want voters to know about their sycophancies for the president?
Make no mistake about it — there is a perception Trump’s trade policy is terrible for the state – at least that is its portrayal by Alabama’s media.
For now, there doesn’t seem to be anyone offering an opposing view on this issue on Trump’s behalf. Maybe someone should.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and is the editor of Breitbart TV.
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