Alarming rise of protectionism in GOP White House race

There is a lot of debate on the right side of the aisle over which GOP presidential candidates are real Republicans and which ones are pretending. Much of it is about going after the front-runner, Rudy Giuliani, who -- because of his support of abortion rights, gay rights and stricter gun laws -- doesn't live up to some people's definition of what a conservative Republican should be.

But the conflict is spilling everywhere. When Mitt Romney insisted that he -- not Giuliani -- represents "the Republican wing of the Republican Party," it was John McCain who took offense and read Romney the riot act, assailing the former Massachusetts governor's liberal record. As entertaining as this might be to watch, it's misspent energy. The Republican candidates are having the right argument about the wrong issues, while going after the wrong people. True, there are Republicans running for president who, on some issues, sound like Democrats. But it's happening in the areas of trade, protectionism and economic competitiveness. And that's where Republican voters should be concerned.

You only had to spend a few minutes watching the recent GOP presidential debate from Dearborn, Mich., to pick up on this dynamic. Centered on economic issues, the forum was filled with the sort of doom-and-gloom class warfare that we usually hear from Democrats who cozy up to organized labor. The spectacle included some Republicans pandering to middle-class voters who are unsure about their economic future, who think too many jobs are outsourced, who worry that illegal immigrants depress wages, and who think their kids will have a lower standard of living.

De-pres-sing.

But the Democratic impersonators must have found it a constituency worth addressing. Ron Paul, a libertarian, condemned what he called a "transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy" and the fact that "you have more billionaires than ever before." Duncan Hunter, a hawk on national security, lamented the "1.8 million jobs that have moved to communist China from the United States," which he attributed to the fact that "we've fractured the great industrial base of this country and we pushed it offshore with bad trade deals." Tom Tancredo, who rode his opposition to illegal immigration into the presidential race, complained about those countries that aren't "playing by the rules" and "undercut American products around the world."

Thankfully, the other Republicans on stage saw the world differently. Giuliani implored his countrymen to "act like confident Americans," called the free market "one of our greatest assets" and said "the sky's the limit." McCain argued that "wealth creates wealth," that revenues are at an all-time high, and that -- given attacks on free trade -- Ronald Reagan "must be spinning in his grave." Thompson said he didn't think we were headed for a recession and that "in a dynamic economy," more jobs are gained than lost and that "free and fair trade has been good for America" and should be preserved.

Romney apparently finds both sides persuasive, insisting that he believes in trade and that America "can compete around the world and win" but also that U.S. workers and companies need a level playing field and a fair shake. He also suggested that he wanted the Republican nominee for president to "come out of the same mold as Ronald Reagan."

Well, that narrows the field. Reagan, who was an ardent believer in free trade, looked at this country and saw a shining city on a hill. All that some of the 2008 crop of GOP hopefuls see is a beleaguered nation on the ropes.

The Republican protectionists aren't just wrong. They're dangerous. They're running in the wrong primary. The only valuable thing they provide is a clear choice.

© 2007, Washington Post Writers Group