My Sunday column

If I was an old black man I would sit down on a stool with a glass of bourbon and write a slow, sad, angry song ... one of those “My Baby’s Gone” tunes that echo through every Chicago back alley (at least the Chicago of my imagination).
My faith in the American political system, already tottering like a whupped heavyweight fighter, was KO’d for good on Friday.
Fight’s over.
I knew better, but right up until the end I told myself that someone would step forward like Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and set the country straight, just in the nick of time.
Didn’t happen.
The stimulus-bill-that-isn’t-really-a-stimulus bill passed muster with the House and Senate on Friday, committing more than a trillion dollars (interest included) into one of the most dubious economic schemes in our nation’s history.
The Republicans fought back, but lacked the ammunition to win. Not one supported the bill in the House. Three — those silly boobs from Maine, Collins and Snowe, and that old fool Arlen Specter from Pennsylvania sided with the Democrats, giving them the votes they needed for an outright victory.
Got to do something, they said, just before sticking the nation’s head in a fiscal meat grinder.
The next time a Democrat starts blabbing to you about our children’s future, tell him his party just dropped a trillion dollar debt at your kid’s door. That’s who’s gonna be paying for this monstrosity, just about the same time that the Social Security and Medicare systems start to belly up. Good luck.
In Ayn Rand’s powerful novel “Atlas Shrugged,” the United States suffers great economic reversals, declines which are accelerated by the fact that the nation’s most productive citizens, the people of the mind who demand freedom as an environment in which to work, go on strike. They walk away from a system dominated by political schemers, hacks and parasites.
At 18, that seemed like a farfetched idea.
At 46, that very reality has slammed me in the face.
My baby’s gone. Da-da-da-duh.
•••
There is a rising chorus of calls to Buy American! As the economy has weakened, many would like to see imports restricted or even halted. Go back to making everything here and pay ourselves a lot more money to do it. That’s the thinking
The sentiment is understandable.
The idea is stupid.
World trade is a vital part of our economy. It allows us to purchase items for less, saving money which can be spent on other things. It lets American consumers — rich and poor — maximize their budgets.
It also allows us to sell goods overseas. Many Americans have no idea how vast our export markets are and how vital they are to many American businesses, including the carpet industry
International trade also creates jobs in shipping and transportation. You think American port workers want to see less trade?
World trade has also financed our debt. Countries which sell more to the U.S. than they buy must put those dollars to work. Most do it by investing in our Treasury bonds. That’s how Uncle Sam pays a lot of his bills.
In one of the numerous gaffes that marked the early days of the Obama administration, the Democratic leadership sent out signals that “Buy American” might well become the nation’s new policy. Some of our trade partners took notice and quickly made it clear that restrictive trade policies by the U.S. would be matched.
The threat worked. Obama retreated.
Let’s hope our new president puts aside this silliness for at least the next four years.

Jimmy Espy is executive editor of The Daily Citizen