The Progressive Case For Free Trade

As recently as eight years ago, when the Clinton-Gore administration ended, a bipartisan consensus existed among Democrats and Republicans in favor of free trade, which leaders of both parties recognized was in America's economic interest.

Now, unfortunately, the consensus has unraveled, with most Democrats in Congress opposing key free trade agreements with some of our closest allies and Sen. Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, threatening anti-trade policies if elected.

This reversal is very disappointing for many reasons, not least because it is Democratic progressives who should be the strongest champions of free trade. There is a reason that Democratic presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton have been committed free traders — they understood that free trade advances precisely those goals that have historically mattered most to Democrats, both at home and abroad.

Domestically, free trade today is caricatured by the anti-trade left as sending companies overseas and hurting American workers. But this caricature is deeply flawed. In fact, it is middle- and lower-income American workers and families who are among free trade's greatest beneficiaries. …