I'm a "Reagan Republican," and I think The Club for Growth is a bunch of dittohead hacks.

Shouting cliches has replaced conservative thought.

Freer trade has not worked as advertised, except for perhaps the top 20% of Americans.
As long as the free traders refuse to admit this, there will be poltical problems.

There's a difference between "Freer trade has not worked as advertised" and Freer trades does not work at all and therefore the US should resort to protectionism. There's an interesting podcast that touches on some of these issues: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/07/henderson_on_di.html.

Many manufacturing jobs were likely "outsourced" to automation by technology, not to China. If you want those jobs back, you will have a more convincing case proposing barriers to technology. Perhaps a high innovation tax and quotas on the amount of efficiency a business can employ.

While people often claim that the US stopped making things, the GDP data shows otherwise: http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gdpind05_revchart2.gif. Less manufacturing jobs, but a growing output of domestic goods. That's a productivity issue, not a trade issue.

I'd just like to know how free trade is going to "solve" China. I've heard arguments that as prosperity comes they will naturally figure out things like free speech and not repressing people, but I don't buy it. So what to do? Not that tariffs are the way to go, but it seems reasonable to me that before we happily give them a helping hand in overtaking us as the world superpower we'd better know what we're doing. Maybe it's worth harming our economy to harm theirs, for political reasons. Seriously, I'm hoping to be corrected, but despite the apparent ignorance of politicians' economic meddling, economists don't seem to have answers to the questions we actually care about.

Relatedly, are there any organizations devoted to recommending how to use economic policy wisely? e.g. Is it ever appropriate to use tariffs? Is there something else that would do the intended trick? What's good about EITC? etc.

I'd just like to know how free trade is going to "solve" China. I've heard arguments that as prosperity comes they will naturally figure out things like free speech and not repressing people, but I don't buy it. So what to do? Not that tariffs are the way to go, but it seems reasonable to me that before we happily give them a helping hand in overtaking us as the world superpower we'd better know what we're doing. Maybe it's worth harming our economy to harm theirs, for political reasons. Seriously, I'm hoping to be corrected, but despite the apparent ignorance of politicians' economic meddling, economists don't seem to have answers to the questions we actually care about.

Relatedly, are there any organizations devoted to recommending how to use economic policy wisely? e.g. Is it ever appropriate to use tariffs? Is there something else that would do the intended trick? What's good about EITC? etc.

Perhaps you should suggest the US set its own RMB/USD exchange rate at a lower level and duke it out. Let's see how creative the Chinese would be at sneaking money out of China.

I'd just like to know how free trade is going to "solve" China. I've heard arguments that as prosperity comes they will naturally figure out things like free speech and not repressing people, but I don't buy it. So what to do?

I'm not sure I buy it either, but surely it is better that the Chinese people are just politically repressed rather than both dirt poor AND politically repressed, isn't it? And, from a geopolitical standpoint, isn't it far better for China to be deeply integrated into the world economy (and, therefore, have much to lose from conflict) than isolated?