“Most Republicans and Democrats facilitated the process by endlessly promoting “free trade” and arguing that any constraints on free enterprises’ relocations were unthinkable, inefficient, and (other synonyms for) “really bad.” As more and more jobs left the United States, and formerly prosperous cities and states entered long-term declines, the two parties blamed their favorite targets: one another.
The idea that capitalism and capitalists were the problem was something neither Democrats nor Republicans allow into their debates and talking points. Yet it was precisely capitalists’ profit-driven, self-interested decisions to move that have caused our economic problems. And so they remain.”