Policy vs. Votes

The New York Times on the benefits of free trade:

… most economists still agree that free trade, for the most part, helps the economy, through increased job creation and lower prices, more than it hurts it, through jobs lost to low-wage competitors around the world. Overall, the aggregate benefits of globalization to American consumers, economists say, outweigh the costs and painful dislocations for workers and families and even whole towns, no matter that the losers are more easily identifiable — and vocal — than the winners.

And yet, as the article also points out, Democrats, because they are so beholden to unions, still have to rumple their brows and sneer at NAFTA and other free-trade agreements, making sure they do the Concerned-About-Workers dance that union interests require.  It’s an unfortunate fact about American politics that, on a regular basis, concerns about good policy tend to wilt in the face of concerns about votes.