“Sovereign multilateralism” is how a GOPer described the “benefits” to ordinary Americans from international agreements and treaties.
This MSNBC Republican (flogging a book) was incredulous that President Trump would dare to be so offish to NATO members. Did he miss last year’s election? We wanted out of NATO.
Candidate Trump got considerable support for his promises to violate this or the other agreement between the U.S. government and various supranational systems. Successive U.S. governments have ceded the rights of Americans to these supra-state systems. Deplorables wanted much less of it.
As I pointed out in “The Trump Revolution: The Donald’s Creative Destruction Deconstructed” (June 29, 2016), international treaties are not holy writ.
Granted, radical libertarians will contend that the Constitution itself is the thin edge of the wedge that has allowed successive U.S. governments to cede the rights of Americans to these supra-state systems. Specifically, the “Supremacy Clause” in Article VI states that all treaties made by the national government shall be “the supreme Law of the Land,” and shall usurp the laws of the states.
Either way, all libertarian-minded conservatives who yearn to breathe free should want the chains with which others have bound Americans dissolved. Johnson and Weld object to Trump renegotiating agreements or optimizing them for Americans, on the statist grounds that to so do would violate agreements that by their nature sideline the American people. Smashing or refashioning these agreements and reclaiming national, state and individual sovereignty, as Trump proposes, is certainly more libertarian than the Johnson-Weld worldview allows.
The Scarlet Letter E Establishmentarians keep overruling Trump voters.
As for Trump “Leaning Toward Withdrawing U.S. From Landmark Paris Climate Deal:” We have very strong environmental protections, including emission controls, in-house.
The Paris scheme is a wealth grab. Barack Obama and others before him were always selling out Americans for their own legacy.
UPDATE (6/1):
We’re out of the Paris Accord!
Pittsburgh before Paris:
