How Democrats turned away from America’s workers
“Firrigation trade Just an amazing concept/Advertisers tell us so/Don’t doubt it, don’t doubt it/You’re so stupid. You don’t know. That’s the song Sherrod Brown composed on his guitar in 1993, when he was a freshman congressman from Ohio helping to lead the fight against ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The new president, Bill Clinton, was also a Democrat, and he struggled during his election campaign over the trade agreement, which was negotiated by his Republican predecessor. He eventually came out in support of it while promising to strengthen its protections for workers and the environment. The new protections were not enough for Brown, and his song expressed his anger at what he saw as a narrow-minded and arrogant standardization of elite opinion. Clinton eventually rallied enough Democrats to join most Republicans in ratifying the treaty.