13 Aug Some Real “Sovereigntists”: U.S. Presidential Candidates Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich
I thought it might be interesting to review the foreign policy platforms of some of the less mainstream candidates for the U.S. presidency. On the far “right” and “left,” we do find one piece of common ground: serious and substantial skepticism of U.S. participation in international organizations.
Here is an excerpt of U.S. Congressman Ron Paul’s views on international organizations:
So called free trade deals and world governmental organizations like the International Criminal Court (ICC), NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA are a threat to our independence as a nation. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites.
The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a doctor’s prescription to take herbs and vitamins. Alternative treatments could be banned.
The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws, yet we still face trade wars. Today, France is threatening to have U.S. goods taxed throughout Europe. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs.
NAFTA’s superhighway is just one part of a plan to erase the borders between the U.S. and Mexico, called the North American Union. This spawn of powerful special interests, would create a single nation out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under this scheme.
And a free America, with limited, constitutional government, would be gone forever.
Let’s not forget the UN. It wants to impose a direct tax on us. I successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to tax us, we will need leadership from the White House.
We must withdraw from any organizations and trade deals that infringe upon the freedom and independence of the United States of America.
And then there is Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who is a bit less sweeping in his condemnations since he has never met a non-trade treaty that he didn’t like. Still, it is interesting that he pledges that his first act as President, to withdraw the United States from NAFTA and the WTO.
The global trade regime of NAFTA and WTO has enriched multinational corporations. But for workers, family farmers, and the environment, it has meant a global race to the bottom. Companies leave the US in search of low wages, low commodity prices, anti-union climates, and lax environmental laws. NAFTA has been used to whipsaw workers at the negotiation table, forcing wages and benefit concessions under threat of moving jobs overseas. Trade treaties must be conditioned on workers’ rights, human rights, and environmental principles. The U.S. must withdraw from NAFTA and the WTO–and replace these with bilateral fair trade agreements.
These gentlemen both are on the right track, but miss an important point. Governments are not businesses. Individuals and corporations can do business with one another quite nicely without the interference of bureaucrats. The problem is two-fold: Businesses look for the easy way out in a competitive marketplace by getting their friends in government to legislate and regulate against their competition. Governments, always looking to get their hands into someone’s pocket, eagerly accomodate their friends to enrich themselves and expand their power. As P.J. O’Rourke so plainly stated,”When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”