system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Politicians who claim that they can save the Rust Belt are being dishonest

The nature of free trade, globalization, and automation means that there will always be winners and losers. In 2016, Trump secured the presidency by pushing a protectionist platform that promised to renege on NAFTA and the TPP and implement tariffs to prop up an unprofitable manufacturing sector. Ultimately, his tariffs ended up raising prices and hurting other sectors of the economy, and most importantly, none of the jobs that he promised came back.

The reason why those jobs aren't coming back is simple: The United States is a post-industrial economy and has been so since the 70s. Even China, the current manufacturing capital of the world, has seen average wages rise to the point where businesses are now moving their manufacturing to more affordable countries in Southeast Asia.

The Clinton campaign took the support of Rust Belt voters for granted and the Democrats still continue to push the frankly tone-deaf and patronizing idea that workers who lost their jobs should be enrolled in "job retraining programs" and come out the other end as freshly minted computer programmers. Do they really think that the average blue-collar mining, mill, or factory worker (who only has a high school diploma and has worked in the same job for their entire life) would magically want to (or could) become a software developer and start churning out iPhone apps to support their family?

As we enter a new age of increasing automation where 100 workers in a factory can be replaced by a team of 5, the chances of the Rust Belt returning to its former glory reach asymptotically closer and closer to zero. There is no easy answer for the Rust Belt in the same way there was no easy answer for the horse and buggy industry after the invention of the automobile or for handweavers after the invention of the mechanical loom.

I believe politicians know this but instead choose to instill false hope because anything else would cost them votes. Due to their dishonesty, our country continues to be held hostage every 4 years by the misplaced dream that the America of the 50s will rise again if you "just vote for the right guy" only for the same voters to be left disappointed as each year brings more job layoffs, factory closures, and abandoned neighborhoods in its wake. The United States needs to come to terms with the realization that those jobs and neighborhoods aren't coming back and move on.
gpt
Depends what you mean by "save". If you mean "bring it back to it's former glory, exactly" it's unlikely to happen. The world has moved on. If you mean "alleviate some of the transition pains and don't leave bunches of people in a lurch" there's probably something there.