Retread

Assuming he ever gets his act together with them, one of President Trump's stated goals with imposing unilateral worldwide tariffs is to incentivize a renewal of manufacturing in the United States, something with most people who aren't hyped on manufacturing jobs think is a fool's errand. Accordingly, there has been a decent amount of questioning in the media over just why so many Americans come across as nostalgic for "Made in America."

I would expect it's for the same reason why so many left-leaning journalists and pundits seemed to pin their hopes on the idea that Trump voters would come to their senses and withdraw their support in favor of more old-school establishment Republicans: People understand what the past looks like, and they believe that all that needs to happen to get back there is winding back some number of changes that occurred after a given point in time.

A past, even a misremembered one, is therefore a known quantity, and so seems to carry less uncertainty and risk than charting a new path. And since everyone I've encountered who wants to wind back the clock appears to have forgotten just why things changed in the first place, there's a sense that back in the day, things just worked, and so there's no reason to not go back to doing things that way.

In my experience, the more people seem to feel that they need something to work, the more confident they are that it will work, regardless of evidence to the contrary. Such is the nature of faith.