Lou Dobbs Smackdown

Julian Sanchez administers a nice one, along with a solid argument for free trade, here. My favorite part comes at the end:

When it comes to trade, Dobbs’ one-sidedness gets things even more dramatically backwards. I had always been under the naive impression that we have jobs in order to be able to buy the stuff that we want. Whether I consider my salary “low” or “high” then depends on how expensive that stuff is. Dobbs, apparently, is inspired by a more Puritan work ethic. On his account, we want jobs for their own sake; if other people are willing to offer us goods more cheaply than we can make them ourselves, this cruelly robs us of the opportunity to work longer and harder.

Dobbs, of course, is an educated fellow, and presumably familiar with these arguments. But providing a voice for those eager to blame a Dark Other for the world’s ills can only be good for ratings. And that, at least, ensures that Lou gets to keep his job.

Sanchez is a noted Libertarian. As I argued before, Libertarians stand to get a lot more of what they want — or at least a lot less of what they don’t like — by supporting the Democratic candidate in 2004. This is probably more important than it sounds at first glance. First, Libertarian votes for the Democratic candidate will likely come mostly from votes that would otherwise go Republican, as opposed to coming from non-voters, so their impact is doubled (see this earler Sanchez editorial on this point). Second, Libertarian support might help convince moderate center-right Republicans who are distrustful of the current administration’s fundamentalist base and growth of government policies to vote for a centrist Democrat, which the primary winner will surely be (yes, I include Dean in this category).

AB