China, The Red Rockers And Willard Romney

The video above was the first commercial hit my independent record label, 415 Records, ever had. It was our first #1 on any radio chart. The first Republican governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction was so excited by the success of a white band from his state that he made me an honorary colonel in the Louisiana State Police. Little did I know that the Red Rockers, once called the American Clash, could have been addressing today's Republican Party.

Because the most corporately oriented Supreme Court in American history granted the one percent-- what Teddy Roosevelt referred to as "the malefactors of great wealth"-- an absurd, manufactured "right" to nearly unfettered ability to buy the political class for its own purposes (and in complete secret), they also granted foreign governments the ability to buy politicians just about as easily. China immediately took them up on the opportunity, purchasing three senators, Ron Johnson (R-WI), Miss McConnell (R-KY) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), outright and guaranteeing John Boehner the House speakership, with undetectable contributions through the fascist front group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Now Republican politicians have to deal with it-- having their cake and eating it too, demagoguing against China for xenophobic GOP voters while keeping the Chinese cash flowing in their direction. This week what amounted to a virtual anti-China rally at a Mitt Romney fundraiser was a perfect example, especially when the host, a notorious outsourcer of American jobs, admitted Romney was just playing GOP voters for fools when he faked some outrage at China.

The small businessman who hosted and supports Mitt Romney here-- and makes a healthy portion of his living outsourcing manufacturing work to China-- has a message for his fellow businessfolk: Don’t worry, Romney’s tough talk on China is just that. Talk.

At his final rally of the penultimate day before the caucuses kick off here, Romney blasted China, as he has many, many times on the trail.

“I’ll clamp down on China that’s been cheating,” Romney said. “They’ve been stealing our intellectual property, our designs, our patents, our know-how, our brands, they’ve been hacking into our computers. That has got to stop.”

“I will stop it if I’m President of the United States,” Romney said.

This kind of stuff is a fixture of the Romney campaign stump speech. And it’s given his opponents pause. Jon Huntsman has said Romney’s promise to “brand China a currency manipulator” is dangerous talk that could lead to a costly trade war.

Romney’s Clive remarks came in the manufacturing center of Competitive Edge, an Iowa firm that makes branded items for promotional campaigns. Much of their work is done in China, as the company’s website points out, and owner David Greenspon told me after Romney’s speech that, though he is a supporter of Romney and plans to vote for him, he shares Huntsman’s take on Romney’s China rhetoric.

“You don’t push China. If you push China you’ve got a problem,” he said, adding, “Huntsman is right about China.”

This is not to say that Greenspon doesn’t have a beef with China. He agrees with Romney that the country is unfair in its trading practices and explained to me that though “I’m part of the problem” when it comes to companies sending work to China, he’s working hard to lessen his reliance on the country.

He also said he doesn’t think Romney’s being completely serious when it comes to his tough China talk.

“I think the rhetoric of a campaign is different than the actual application,” he said. “[Romney] will sit down and he will get the right people in, he will take the advice of maybe a Huntsman who will say, ‘this is how to handle China.’”