Are we pretending Clinton democrats were not passionate free traders before?

Support for free trade has more than doubled according to this poll: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GpgFd1qWIAAKFlc?format=jpg&name=...

Not really proof of much. It's more likely that there is a huge increase in people who don't like having their taxes increased by a cadre of billionaires. I doubt support has increased for expanding free trade policies (e.g. the TPP and TTIP treaties Obama tried to complete).

Trump is closer to Bill Clinton than any current Democrat leader.

45 was, 47 is closer to President McKinley than any modern politician.

To use actual numbers instead of indicies.

The parent was claiming that say 10 is closed to 2 than any of the 100s are. It is also true that 10 is closer to 9 than 2.

That said, given how much Trump has increased not only government spending but also the deficit he's pretty far _politically_ from Clinton. However, IIRC, the two of them were _physically_ closer on Epstein's island than any current democratic leader.

Why is free trade good? Isn't competition easily attacked via subsidation, for example, if trade is unregulated (why Chinese cars are not bought in EU)?

That's a broad question, and I don’t have time to give a full answer right now — but I recommend checking out some classic talks by economist Milton Friedman on YouTube. He explains tariffs and subsidies really well. For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcw3Z3vMqWw