Donald Trump’s ill-conceived bravado concerning America’s farming and industrial interest, when turned into policy, is leading America in the opposite direction of success. It’s easy to be loud and boisterous and against everything on the campaign trail, but when turned into real-life action, it is against America’s best financial interest. Slowly, ever so slowly, he is eating away at our prosperity. Eventually, all these small steps will lead us to a catastrophic economic event that will in turn lead us into an economic chasm that will be extremely difficult for us to pull out of and again see the light of day. This calamity will be extremely bad for farming states such as California.
First, at the very beginning of his term, Trump, being a knowledgeable expert scientist, went against the views and recommendations of the vast majority of world scientists, and to the dismay of world leaders, pulled the U.S. out of the world climate agreement. All this because in his heart he just knows that climate change is not true. But as the world’s climate heats up, farming states such as California will become barren wastelands, with drought, fires, and flooding as farm production plummets and world food production becomes an issue. Without American government participation, our local states and towns in America are continuing efforts against climate change along with other nations.
The efforts continue!
Then, he began to attack the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pulling us out of the agreement and in so doing has alienated large numbers of farmers and related workers in California and other high farm-production states. The agreement would have allowed Western farmers to reach more customers in the Pacific Rim marketplace. Estimates of our gains for U.S. farmers and ranchers would have been $4.4 billion in added income, plus related transportation and port jobs for Americans. Hey, Donald! It might have been wise to have discussed this with Western farmers before proceeding. Fortunately for the world, but not for America, Canadian leader Justin Trudeau recently revealed that his country and the remaining 10 members of the TPP have revised their trade deal after the U.S. withdrawal, and free trade will continue without American membership.
All this strange behavior has not been good for America according to the Pew Research Center, which has found a noticeable decline in the confidence level in the U.S. president worldwide after a survey of 37 nations. They found that confidence levels plunged from the high 80 percentiles for Obama to: Germany with 11 percent, the U.K. with 22 percent, and France at 14 percent for Trump. The only countries that went up for Trump were Russia, with 53 percent, and Israel, at 56 percent. The worldview of America’s president saw corresponding drops in confidence for American leadership role in world affairs. Needless to say this trend needs to be reversed, and we again need to be viewed with positive eyes by the rest of the world as a “shining city upon a hill,” as John F. Kennedy once declared.
This drop in confidence is helped by the president’s constant lies. As of Jan. 10, 2018, he was up to 2,001 lies as president. Most prior presidents are said to have lied to protect their reputations, but Trump just seems to enjoy it. In his own autobiography, the term “truthful hyperbole” explained his truth stretching to close a sale. Thus, because he has not changed, we are all living in a new truth reality, with his right-wing media army using his version of the “truth.” These events have helped lead to the worldwide drop in the confidence levels of America and our current leader.
Donald Trump has, without any thought, also mentioned the evils of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He appears unaware of the fact that over the past 20 years with NAFTA in force, our nation’s farm exports have jumped from $8.9 billion to $38.6 billion. He is unaware of the fact that free trade in the long run is good for America and good for the world. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, put it in perspective at the recent Davos meeting in Switzerland in his opening remarks when he said that “protectionism can be as dangerous as terrorism.” He made his statements right after Trump approved U.S. tariffs on imports of solar equipment and washing machines. Without mentioning Trump, Modi went on to state, “Forces of protectionism are raising their heads against globalization. The negative impact of this kind of mindset cannot be considered less dangerous than climate change.” He urged governments not to turn to isolationism.
Trump appears to have no understanding of world history or the movement of American and world leaders during recent years to bring us all together in peace and prosperity. Let the world move toward success and not a calamity. Without protectionism we can all enjoy South American grapes and fruits in the winter and sell the same products in our summer months to South America. Free trade with no tariffs is good for farmers, ranchers, California, and America!
Ken McCalip is a North Santa Barbara County native. He can be reached at [email protected]. Send your thoughts to [email protected].
