Smoot Hawley and A. Mitchell Palmer

It is disappointing to hear the pandering in this presidential campaign as I have listened I am reminded of two terrible examples from early in the 20th Century. A Mitchell Palmer was an AG in the early 1920s who led a series of anti-immigrant raids. A lot of the GOP candidates are Palmeresque in their comments about immigrants. The data here is pretty clear - from respected researchers as diverse as Julian Simon and Dowell Myers. This generation of immigrants has provided, like all previous generations net benefits to society. And, according to Myers research they are assimilating more quickly than any previous generation. But some in the GOP see an easy target.

On the other side Clinton and Obama sound a lot like W.C. Hawley and Reed Smoot. Those two created a disastrous tariff regime in 1930 which helped to extend the depression. Clinton and Obama are pandering to the unions who claim that NAFTA has not produced positive results for us. That is nonsense. The easing of trade restrictions since WWII has improved American life in all sorts of ways. There have been some transition problems but many of those were not created exclusively by increasingly free trade but by changes in what Americans do best. Our future growth does not depend on many of the smokestack industries whose former workers Obama and Clinton seem to be Smoot-Hawleying to.

Leaders should lead not try to pander to groups of voter fears. Our candidates should be smarter. But, so far, they are not.