How Trump's made-in-America scam still means made-in-China

Wow! Who says election promises don't produce real change?

Candidate Donald Trump had loudly proclaimed that he'd force U.S. corporations to move their Chinese manufacturing jobs back to America. How? By imposing a whopping new tariff on all the made-in-China products they sell to us.

Even he must have been surprised, though, when one major American corporation promptly shouted, "Yes, sir!" Only one day after Trump's election, the Steve Madden shoe manufacturer announced it would leave China, where nearly all of its footwear is made. Amazing -- a victory for Trump policy even before he takes office! And a morale boost for American workers.

So, where would Madden relocate? Maybe in the hard-hit industrial Midwest, or maybe such former shoe-making areas as New England and the Southeast. But no. In a less-pleasant surprise to Trump, Madden executives said they would not replant their factories in the USA -- but in Vietnam, Cambodia and Brazil.

Despite appearing to succumb to Trump's anti-China tariff, Madden is making an end run around it, "leaving China" by taking China with it. The corporate trick here is the structural reality that not only are U.S. factories located in China but so are the suppliers of the materials manufacturers must buy to make their products. So, Madden can scoot down to Vietnam, thus escaping Trump's China tariff -- but the shoe's components (from laces to soles) will still be Chinese-made. And contrary to Trump's bragging, his policy will not create a single made-in-America job.

Let's remember that corporations are the most aggressively selfish elites in our society, and we should not be duped into thinking that running job-creation policy through them will benefit anyone but them.

THE DEMOCRATS' RURAL PROBLEM IS THEY'VE FORGOTTEN HOW TO FARM

As any farmer can tell you, if you want to plant, grow and harvest a crop, you've got to get out of the office and go to work in the field.

Why can't the top political strategists, donors and consultants of the Democratic Party grasp this basic reality when it comes to producing votes? This year was going to be different. Pressed by progressive rural activists, national party leaders proudly declared that they would open a network of get-out-the-vote offices in rural, red areas of battleground states. SPOILER ALERT: In states that Joe Biden won, Kamala Harris won 104,000 fewer rural votes than Biden harvested four years earlier.

What happened? Very little, too late. Opening a campaign office is hardly the same as being there for the long haul, building trust and nurturing local support. Harris was behind from the start, though, since Biden's Democratic Party operation had not bothered to hire any rural staffers or even prepare an agenda. Apparently, their idea of a good rural program was Hee-Haw.

The Harris campaign did put out a plan -- but in September, just two months before the vote! Also, they had too many "rural strategists" and too few ground-level organizers at campaign headquarters. Those organizers did their best but were mostly disregarded by campaign consultants. For example, a good list of rural surrogates was recruited but never used. Worse, Harris herself was absent -- she was never scheduled to visit a farm, or even pay a culturally symbolic visit to a state fair.

The Democrats' real problem is not any one campaign but more than a decade of policy and political abandonment of rural communities. Do the smart leaders think people out here don't notice the party's absence and disregard for them? Again, any farmer knows you can't harvest a crop if you don't plant one and cultivate it.

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