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Jewish World Review Dec. 8, 1999 /29 Kislev, 5760
Chris Matthews
Build a globally competitive economy, as they've done in
the state of Washington, and the story gets marooned in
the financial pages. Chuck a rusty newspaper box through
a Starbucks window, and you get your puss on Dan
Rather.
This is the upside-down story of the past week's
jamboree in Seattle. The mounted police, the swat teams
in riot gear, the hot-dogging protester dodging rubber
bullets, the smashed store windows, the looter heading off
with his new television — all produced an irresistible
portrait of late-20th century America. The
environmentalists, pro-Tibet activists, labor unions and
animal-rights folk had written and delivered their
statement for the whole world to read: We, the people,
oppose free trade.
The fact is we love it, as anyone visiting this country can
see. We like going to stores that have every choice of
clothing or technology or food or drink that pops up on
the world market. We like going online to buy whatever
we want at the cheapest price we can find, unfettered by
any barrier whatsoever, whether it be by government or
business.
We like the freedom to match wits with the world, to cut or reject any deal that
gets put before us by whatever means.
And that overwhelmingly includes the people of the state of Washington. Eight
of its nine members in the U.S. Congress voted for both the North American
Free Trade Agreement and for GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade. The record is a surprise to no one. As anyone familiar with the
Northwest knows, Washington is as much a trading state as its Pacific Rim
counterpart, Japan.
This free-trade philosophy is showcased by Washington's three most famous
brand names: Boeing, Starbucks and Microsoft.
Walk through the streets of Seattle on any week but this last and you capture
the human culture that has arisen alongside such dynamic enterprises: mobile,
excited, informal. Here you can spot a guy heading to work, not by his necktie
— there are none — but by his Starbucks cup.
The president most connected to this modern way-of-life and most responsible
for the bipartisan, free-trade spirit which so closely accompanies it, is William
Jefferson Clinton.
"We cannot grow the American economy in the 21st century," he said in Seattle
last week,
Anyone who protests this argument should pay heed to the alternative view put
forward by Patrick J. Buchanan, running for the Reform Party's presidential
nomination, and his new friends on the far, equally protectionist left.
Adorned in pinstripes and shined shoes, he speaks with the same nasty
intimidation as the street tough who demands to squeegee your car window
knowing full well, as you do yourself, that it's perfectly clean.
His troglodyte screeching provides the perfect background noise to the sound
of metal news boxes crashing through Starbucks'
12/01/99:Why are we so obsessed with 'spin'?
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