(4-28-25) Sherrod Brown…the former Democrat Ohio Senator thinks the President’s tariff platform, though disastrous, appeals to an increasingly desperate working class.

Sherrod Brown’s op-ed in the New York Times last Sunday, laying out the problems with our current trade policy, and the danger for progressives of returning to “the old, neoliberal Washington-Wall Street consensus on trade.”

Former Sen. Brown writes:

“Lost in the discussion of these tariffs is the reason corporations outsource jobs and the reason they lobbied so hard for ‘free’ trade deals in the first place: They want to pay lower wages and fewer benefits to their workers, and follow weaker environmental protections.”

The full NY Times piece can be found here, and listen to a Tyler Foggatt’s The Political Scene podcast with Sen. Brown on trade and tariffs here.

During the podcast Brown said –

“I’ve heard economists talk about these tariffs upending the global order on trade. Well, to a lot of workers, anything’s better than the global order on trade. It’s our policy problem as a country, and it’s our political problem for Democrats.”

1 year ago…

Ohio’s Brown opposes Biden effort to suspend tariffs on Chines solar product importers

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