It keeps popping up since the election: one thing that Republicans are going to push in the lame-duck session of Congress is the so-called “free trade” agreement with Peru. It’s astonishing that the Democrats would let such a deal sail through given the results of the elections. As I pointed out, candidates opposed to so-called “free trade” did very well in the elections. There is no reason the Democrats should cave here–unless this is a sign, again, that the Democrats are still in the grip of the corporate mentality.

As this chart from Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch makes clear, the message was clear: voters preferred candidates who stoo for fair trade and against corporate trade. Six out of the eight Democrats who won the election by defeating Republicans were fair trade proponents; 3 out of the 4 Democrats who won open-seats are fair-trade proponents. In the House, pro-fair trade proponents were victorious in 16 races where they defeated incumbent Republicans; eleven of the victorious Democrats in open House seats support fair trade. As important, not a single fair trade supporter, according to Public Citizen, lost their race.

Seems to me the message is clear: embrace fair trade. Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid, can you hear what the American people are saying?