If there were any doubts as to what this election is about, Donald Trump dispatched them this week with his "Declaration of American Economic Independence."
Like the Declaration we celebrate on the Fourth of July, this was a call to arms, a catalog of wrongs perpetrated on the American people and a searing indictment of those responsible. Appearing in the role of King George: Hillary Clinton.
Trump began with the indictment. In the docket: globalist politicians who pursued policies that moved our jobs, wealth and factories overseas.
Co-conspirators in the treason that has left our nation weaker and our citizens jobless are the financial elite who donate to the politicians.
These are the people who "rigged the system for their benefit," Trump thundered, and they have a chosen instrument to do their bidding: Hillary Clinton.
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"They know as long as she is in charge nothing will change," he said. Factories will remain closed, borders will remain open, and America's minorities (along with others) will continue to suffer – "inner cities will remain poor."
But there is an alternative to the globalization that has stripped America of jobs and industry while promoting development in other countries. And Trump made it clear the alternative is as American as mom, apple pie and the flag – and as old as Betsy Ross' handiwork.
Trump reviewed the history Common Core skips over. George Washington believed American industry was essential for a strong, truly independent nation. He wore American-made clothing – a rarity in the day – to his inauguration to set an example for his fellow countrymen to "buy American" whenever possible.
Alexander Hamilton promoted manufacturing in the United States as the first treasury secretary. The government laid a tax on imports, not domestic industries or wages.
Now we tax and regulate Americans, and let foreign countries export their goods to us tax-free.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are the chief culprits in this turnabout thanks to the trade deals they pushed with Mexico and China.
NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, encouraged our automobile and electronics industries to move to Mexico.
China's entry into the World Trade Organization under Clinton's direction allowed Beijing's Communist government to steal our jobs, industries and trade secrets in the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world.
As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton allowed China's currency manipulation and industrial espionage to go unchallenged. She pushed the so-called "free trade" agreement with South Korea, another currency manipulator, killing yet more American jobs.
But Hillary's greatest betrayal of working Americans is yet to come: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP.
This international economic pact would put American workers in direct competition with the slave labor of Malaysia and the $4-a-day workers of Vietnam.
It would allow foreign competitors, including China, to ship more illegally subsidized goods into our country and bankrupt American businesses.
And at exactly the moment the European Union is coming apart, it would lock the U.S. into a Pacific Union where unelected, unaccountable foreign bureaucrats would write regulations dictating everything from the food we eat to who is allowed into our country – and the American people would have no veto.
Hillary Clinton called TPP the "gold standard" of trade deals and refuses to reject it. Forced by Trump and public opinion to distance herself from this wildly unpopular scheme, Hillary says she opposes TPP "in its current form."
If Hillary wins, she will make some cosmetic changes to TPP – just as Bill did with NAFTA – then throw her weight behind getting it approved. She's already laid the groundwork for that. With Hillary's blessing, the Democratic Party platform refuses to oppose the TPP.
Donald Trump knows where he stands.
He will withdraw the U.S. immediately from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
His administration would declare China a currency manipulator and, like President Reagan, would enforce the rules against trade cheating, including imposing tariffs on the cheaters.
A Trump administration would renegotiate NAFTA, or withdraw if our partners refuse to renegotiate.
Just as George Washington and the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, would Buy American, Trump vowed to rely on our own mines, mills and manpower to rebuild our nation. "It will be American hands that remake this country, and it will be American energy – mined from American resources – that powers this country."
Trade reform coupled with tax and regulatory reform will make America the most desirable place on earth to do business.
Trump's declaration of economic independence details the very policies that made America great in the first place.
We can make America great again by returning to our roots.
Media wishing to interview Curtis Ellis, please contact [email protected].
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