Although some warned of dire consequences, their voices were drowned out by those who claimed it was inevitable and would ultimately be an economic boon.
When President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, Americans soon found themselves in a real global economy.
We were told that any economic disruptions would be minimal and easily resolved through worker retraining programs.
Left unsaid was the reality of shuttered factories — retraining programs for jobs that never materialized and ultimately workers thrown onto the welfare rolls to ease their downward spiral.
Under the Bush and Obama Administration the doors were thrown wide open for labor and business.
As cheap labor floated in from all over the world and business floated out of our small towns and cities, our fellow Americans became more desperate for decent paying jobs.
Their complaints were met with a shaming — “this is not who we are.”
They were called sexist, racist, misogynist, xenophobic, homophobic; every “ist” and “phobic” that could be conjured up.
If they organized to protest, the Internal Revenue Service was available to squash their opposition with a long detailed “audit”.
The depression in the heartland soon turned to anger.
And then this character from, of all places, Queens, came along.
The big lumbering coarse man with a blonde flip haircut reminiscent of the 1950s, said he would make America great again.
In desperation the people of the Rust Belt, the south, the west heartland listened and grabbed the lifeline.
Every once in a while there’s a realignment, a change in the trajectory of the nation.
It happened with a Civil War in 1861 — with a Great Depression in 1929 and appears to be happening in 2016.
The American people have chosen a new path.
Time will tell if the man from Queens will be able to pull off a collaboration between business and labor — a collaboration that will keep American business competitive and provide decent paying jobs but we should hope and pray he does for the sake of our country.
Laurann Pandelakis
Manhasset
Readers Write: Trump offers hope to those left behind
