Free Trade...
I know this is seems like a simplistic view, but it is truly the nutshell.
They continuously touted how Free Trade agreements would allow us to sell more things overseas.
It was a lie...
See we are an importer nation who takes in much more from the world than it sends out and if you remove all trade barriers the sides of that equation (Imports>Exports) just multiply and will always benefit the already larger side. The trade barriers weren't there to prevent us from selling in foreign markets they were there to protect us from foreign markets.
Historically all rich and powerful nations used tariffs to protect their economy from cheap external labor. They had to! The act of being a rich and powerful nation means that the standard of living is higher in your country and because the higher standard has a higher costs.
Its really that simple...
A wealthy nation has more internal costs to maintain its high level that equate to the cost of living in that country. With a higher cost of living comes a higher living wage and with a higher living wage comes a higher cost of labor. So a wealthy nation must protect that labor from cheap poorer nations through tariffs.
Tariffs make our products more competitive. I know everyone would like to 'buy American' and with everything equal they will, but when we are talking differences of 5-1 or 10-1 in cost people will look for that really good deal and stop caring where it was made. But if American made only costs 20% or even 50% more then we can compete. If we can compete then we can produce stuff here and then we have manufacturing jobs. If we have manufacturing jobs then the money stays in our system instead of being shipped overseas to feed someone elses economy.
Tariffs also generate income for the federal government thus taking some of the tax burden off the citizens and putting on those that wish to compete with our own economy. Not to mention all the jobs that would be created from internal production and the extra tax revenue all those jobs would generate.
And this is just not about money...
In 1940 one of the reasons America was so feared by the Axis powers had nothing to do with the wealth of our nation or our high technology. It had to do with our massive manufacturing base! If put on a war footing we could crank out weapons of war at such a fast rate that no nation could stand up to us.
What if World War II happened today? Could we mass produce what was needed to defend our country? By protecting our internal manufacturing base we are protecting our nation in the most fundamental of ways. We are keeping it strong and diverse and able to cover its own needs if serious global political upheaval occurred.
The Free Trade agreements have done more harm to this country than any enemy ever has through warfare. They have taken our jobs, our standard of living and our national pride, and they have put them on the world market to compete with the poorest and least developed of nations.
They are there to put us on par with those nations...