while i would not support republicans in most cases, i don't think i can pull the trigger on jack davis this fall in his race against tom reynolds. the whole foley scandal has been, and reynolds' link with it is certainly not something that i would ever support, but looking at this as a position where the person elected would have a voice and be in a position of influence i believe davis would hurt more in the long term. davis is running on a very protectionist platform, and the certain ads he has placed in the wny media almost have a racial undertone to them. the economy and domestic jobs are certainly important issues, but many people fail to see that with free trade and globalization, other economies can also benefit. imposing tariffs and placing trade barriers may keep low-skill american jobs in the country and benefit the US, but the rest of the world loses out china and india the two most populous countries in the world have both grown tremendously in the last decade. they still have poverty problems. these are two countries who have risen up, think about the hundreds of others that are still undeveloped. if any semblance of peaceful coexistance is ever to be achieved these disparities between countries who have, vs. countries who don't have need to disappear. free trade/globalization is not a perfect solution. countries will experience growing pains with workers rights and other such issues, as the US did during its own industrialization. however setting up barriers could cause these developing economies, especially of smaller countries we currently trade with, to collapse. meanwhile, americans would not be paying wal-mart prices for everything (which is not necessarily a bad thing) but if you think about adoption of technology and technological advances, it has always been preceeded by drops in consumer costs leading to faster adoption.

josh your observation that reynolds is a powerhouse is indeed correct, but if you look back at the previous election that allowed him to continue letting him serve, davis actually did surprisingly well against him. a huge reason is the fact that the wny economy is still heavily dependent on the manufacturing sector. many people around here are very worried about the shift of these jobs to other states, and overseas. davis' platform has been to perserve the status quo and keep manufacturing viable here, so he has had a surprising (perhaps not so surprising for area residents) amount of support. also would like to point out that he has his own interests to look after as well, he owns a large manufacturing company in the area. prior to running in the last cycle against reynolds he was a supporter and contributor to reynolds' previous campaigns and a GOP supporter. i'm not saying people can't change their minds about things or view thing from a different perspective, but as always, there are other factors in play.

and yes, i agree with your point that globalization is about more than just the issues of protectionism and free trade. there should be some moral standard that profits cannot always be made at the expense of everything else. i think many corporations think on the micro-scale concerned only with their profits. the long term macro-scale of sustainablity is just as if not more important. however in theory globalization without corporations and people taking advantage of each other should work to bring about a rise in the level of living standards for most. the hard part is implemention in a fair way.