Why are right wing Republican administrations so protectionist?

Their rhetoric aside, Reagan and the Bushes have been far more protectionist than FDR, Carter, and Clinton were. Whether it's open protectionism like panicky steel tariffs, or the quieter moves the White House is using to protect orange growers in Florida, Republicans are, by any standard, the Protectionist Party.

Believe it or not, I don't subscribe to the view that the GOP is being hypocritical. I think it honestly supports free trade.

The problem is that when you tear down social supports like Social Security, welfare, Medicaid, minimum wage laws, etc., you are plunging people into fear--for their jobs, their pensions, their homes. Fearful people become xenophobic. Xenophobic people become protectionist.

When people have more assurances they won't be thrown out in the street, they're more likely to support open trade with other countries. This is why a Kerry Administration would be far more supportive of free trade than a second Bush Administration.

As an example, take the Asian economies like South Korea. They provide their people with a modicum of education and social support. To blunt calls for more widespread protectionism, they use tariffs and quotas judiciously--much as a doctor uses a small pox vaccine to guard against an outbreak of small pox. As a result, these countries both contribute to, and benefit from, free trade.

Compare them to the Latin America economies. In the 90s, social programs were gutted at the same time markets were thrown open. In fear, people have rejected free trade. Anti-free trade governments have swept to power in Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, and are about to in Bolivia, Peru, possibly even Mexico.

If you want an open international trading system, you need to impose minimum labor and environmental standards on the poorest nations, while bolstering social programs in the wealthiest nations. Otherwise, countries will stop participating.

By analogy, imagine you want traffic to flow freely in a big city. You would build good roads, require people to drive safe cars, and impose minimum traffic regulations like stop signs and red lights. Otherwise, anarchy would abound, and people would stop driving.

In the United States, a single payer health insurance system would do more to encourage free trade than all this lecturing folks about the evils of protectionism. Free to start their own businesses without fear of compromising their health insurance, people would become more robust participants in open trade. When single payer was introduced in Canada, business start-ups soared. Canada now has the strongest economic growth of any G7 country.

Unfettered capitalism leads to protectionism. It's the iron law of international trade.