Anything but freedom

I thought that I had seen most of the protectionist arguments, but silly me. Martha Bayles, writing in Friday's IHS, sees cooperation between Hollywood lobbyists and Washington politicos to maintain free trade in movies as the worst sort of of capitalist-politician collaboration. She wants to excuse protectionism by our trading partners.

It is rare that free trade has a powerful lobby behind it. And Bayles might be among those who fret over balance-of-trade negatives, but the U.S. has a strong positive in motion picture trade.

Oddly Bayles worries over U.S. objections to other countries' protectionism and to the Cultural Diversity Convention. In other words, cultural diversity (thinly veiled protectionism by the losers) trumps consumer choice. Anything but free trade and free choice.