Globally, democracies appear fragile and on the defensive. Comparisons with the 1970s and the interwar period abound. In the United States, Donald Trump’s strong showing in recent polls has triggered another wave of fear about authoritarian nationalism.
To many of those who closely followed the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections, his lead in the key swing states is downright alarming. The worst strategy for democrats around the world, and for the Democrats in the US, would be to imitate their opponents. That is a game they cannot win.
Yet that is precisely what many are doing. Consider US President Joe Biden’s new package of China tariffs, which is a more radical reversal of traditional US trade policy than anything Trump himself embraced during his presidency. While headlines have emphasised the 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), the real story concerns batteries, steel, aluminium, and semiconductors.
Though the public doesn’t buy these goods directly, they are inputs in many US-made products and appliances. Presumably, the Biden administration is hoping that Americans will feel hardly any economic effect, and will only see it getting tough with China. We know what the tariffs won’t do.
They won’t create (or “bring back”) many jobs in the US, because if America were to manufacture EVs or solar panels on a large scale, it would rely almost entirely on automated factories. Nor will the tariffs improve relations with US allies, such as by encoura.
