Trade policy battles have officially taken over my brain and I hate it.
I’m typing this at 2:17 a.m. because I couldn’t sleep after reading yet another X thread about the newest round of proposed tariffs on semiconductors and how it’s either gonna save Ohio or finish killing it. My apartment smells like burnt popcorn because I zoned out and left a bag in the microwave too long. The ceiling fan is making that click-click noise it always does when the humidity gets weird. Normal night in central Ohio, February 2026.
When Trade Policy Battles Stopped Being a News Headline and Started Hitting My Wallet
I swear five years ago I could buy a decent pair of work boots for under eighty bucks. Now the same Red Wing seconds are pushing a hundred and twenty and half the time the leather feels thinner. I noticed it first in 2022 when I went to replace the snow shovel after the big storm—everything jumped like twenty percent overnight. Blamed inflation. Then blamed supply chains. Then someone in a bar finally said “tariffs, dude” and I actually listened.
My neighbor across the hall, Luis, lost his machining job at the plant in Marysville when they moved the line to Monterrey. He told me over cheap beer in the parking lot last summer: “They said the tariffs would protect us. Instead the company just said fuck it and left.” He’s driving for DoorDash now. Makes more some weeks, hates it more every day.
That’s the part nobody on cable news seems to get. Trade policy battles aren’t theory. They’re Luis selling his motorcycle to make rent.
The Political Shitshow Around Trade Policy Right Now
Everybody’s Suddenly a Blue-Collar Hero
Both parties are tripping over themselves to sound the most outraged about “unfair trade.” I watched the State of the Union and then the response and honestly couldn’t tell you who said what without checking notes. One side screams “Biden’s weak on China!” the other yells “Trump started this mess!” Meanwhile the price of a new washer-dryer set is basically a used car payment.
I keep thinking back to that one factory tour I did in 2019 for a community college thing. The guide kept saying “we compete globally” while everyone looked like they hadn’t slept in weeks. Fast forward and a bunch of those machines are either idle or gone.
For anyone who wants the dry numbers instead of my ranting, this Atlantic piece from late last year still holds up: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/11/trade-policy-america-working-class/680912/
The China Obsession Is Real and It’s Messy
I don’t love admitting this but yeah—when politicians start talking about decoupling from China I feel two things at once. One is relief because maybe my kids won’t grow up thinking every battery and circuit board has to come from a country that doesn’t like us very much. The other is straight panic because literally everything I own has “designed in California, assembled in Shenzhen” somewhere on it.
My phone right now? China. Laptop? Mostly China. The solar panels on the roof of the house I can’t afford yet? You guessed it. So when someone proposes 60% tariffs I think “hell yes stick it to them” and then immediately “wait how much is my next phone gonna cost?”
This Foreign Affairs article does a better job explaining the tightrope than I ever could: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/new-cold-war-trade-policy
Where I Land (For Now) on Trade Policy Battles
I’m not pure free-trade guy anymore. That died somewhere between watching Dave’s machine shop bleed customers and seeing entire strip malls turn into ghost towns. But I’m also not “tariff everything and magic the factories back” guy either. That feels like snake oil.
What I actually want is boring adult shit: targeted help for industries we actually need here (chips, batteries, drugs), real retraining instead of “go code bootcamp” platitudes, and maybe stop pretending every job can or should come back. Some stuff is gone. Accept it and build something new.
But nobody runs on “nuance.” They run on “fight China” or “stop corporate greed” and both feel half-true and half-performance.
So here I am, 37, mildly hungover from last night’s argument with my brother-in-law about EVs, still not sure if tariffs are a weapon or a blunt object we’re hitting ourselves with.
Okay I’m Done (Sort Of)
Trade policy battles aren’t abstract policy-wonk crap anymore. They’re in the grocery bill, the job postings, the family group chat, the reason Luis doesn’t come to cookouts as much. If you’re reading this and thinking “yeah same” or “nah you’re wrong,” cool—tell me. Seriously. Comment, argue, whatever. At least then I’ll know I’m not the only one losing sleep over import duties.
Go look at your own stuff. See where it’s from. Feel the cognitive dissonance. Then come back and yell at me.
Or don’t. I’m probably gonna keep doom-scrolling either way.
Later.