Domestic manufacturing is a big part of the answer to the stress that defined the last election.
One of the big advantages that Donald Trump will enjoy in January is an economy marked by steady growth, lower inflation, stable employment, and beefy 401(k) earnings. Data shows that voters already feel better about the very same economy they were worried about in October.
But deeper anxiety is unlikely to abate anytime soon. The costs of child care, housing, and health care are too steep, the pathways to well-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree are too narrow, and disruptive economic threats from strategic competitors like China to our security are too strong.
Given the deep political divisions we see in national politics, is progress even possible? According to voters, it is. Americans of all stripes continue to show strong support for boosting U.S. manufacturing. And a boosted manufacturing sector would allay some of our anxiety.
Polling we conducted with Morning Consult after the November election sheds some light on why this is the case. More than 30 years after NAFTA was signed and almost 25 years after Washington naively normalized trade with China, 30 percent of respondents say they know someone who lost a job to a factory closure. That’s one reason why support for manufacturing extends well beyond folks who work – or used to work – on the factory floor.
Voters support keeping or raising tariffs on China, cracking down on imports from Mexico, and realigning our trade agenda to prioritize defending and retraining workers over negotiating new free trade deals.
There is widespread support for an industrial policy that includes domestic investment in strategic industries along with these bold trade defenses. So while Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency may consider scrapping some of these programs, it would be an enormous mistake.
And here’s an opinion that clean energy advocates should take to heart: Eighty-two percent of voters support ensuring clean energy products are made in America to maintain our energy independence, even if it means decarbonizing takes longer.
Americans, who understand that domestic manufacturing means more domestic economic activity, also want to personally do more to help. Four in five say they would buy more American-made products if large retailers stocked them. And voters want policies that will make this kind of consumption easier: Another 82 percent, for example, think online retailers should be required to include country-of-origin labels for products, just like in-person retailers are.
In fact, there’s legislation pending that would do just that – the COOL Online Act, championed in the last Congress by Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin and now Vice President-elect JD Vance.
President-elect Trump, just like in 2016, campaigned on bringing back the jobs lost to outsourcing, and this polling shows a public ready for him to do it. A door is open to bipartisan policy wins if he chooses to go that route. The past few years show how it could be done.
The cross-aisle support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is in that bill’s name; that program is currently rebuilding our shared physical assets with American-made materials, thanks to Buy America enhancements enacted alongside it. The CHIPS Act, which is reshoring crucial semiconductor production capacity, was also a bipartisan deal. So was the successful public-private effort to bring multiple coronavirus vaccinations to the public in record time: Trump’s own Operation Warp Speed.
There are lots of divisive political debates to come about taxes, immigration, and foreign policy. In contrast, rebooting a Made In America agenda would be unifying. More importantly, it’s a central part of the answer to the economic anxiety that defined the last election. A new factory in a deindustrialized community – of which there are many in this country – is a great stabilizer.
That’s another advantage Trump will enjoy: Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on manufacturing construction in the United States in recent years, barely any of us – 8 percent of those polled – have heard about new factories being opened in our communities.
That will change. Soon those factories will be built and the hiring will begin. And no one likes ribbon cuttings more than elected officials.
Mr. Trump and Congress should seize this opportunity and respond to voters’ anxiety by giving them what they want: A program that promotes American manufacturing. Pairing domestic investment with a tough line on trade policy will be deeply popular across the political divide.