WWAGD

At RealClearWorld Matthew Rooney has a cri de coeur, proclaiming himself a globalist:

The idea that America is the loser on the global marketplace is news to our competitors. The Europeans have been trying for years to reform their labor markets in an effort to reach our job creation rates. The Japanese are just now starting to see our growth rates for the first time in a generation. Our Mexican friends would give anything to have our productivity levels — not to mention our institutional stability. Our Canadian friends obviously covet our climate — more than one Canadian in ten owns real estate in the U.S. — but why does their Prime Minister visit San Francisco every time he comes south of the 49th Parallel? He is courting the technology industry on behalf of Toronto and Montreal in hopes of copying our ability to innovate.

At the Bush Institute, we have looked at globalization since NAFTA and its impacts on American growth, job creation, trade, and competitiveness. We have looked at the impact of immigrants on our economy. We see a largely positive picture of growing prosperity based on stable demographics, innovation, and rising productivity.

But what would a globalist do? Certainly not what we’ve been doing for the last 30 years. It seems to me that a genuine globalist would oppose occupational licensing in the U. S., the broad sort of intellectual property rights that have become the sine qua non for American trade negotiators, and American agricultural subsidies. They would also oppose China’s membership in the WTO or being given Most Favored Nation trading status but that is so counter-intuitive I presume it would make his head explode.

Being a phony globalist is easy; being a real one is hard.