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The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

(Bloomberg News file photo)

By David M. Goodman

So, you think the idea of progressives and the Tea Party working together or achieving a common purpose is some woolly-headed, academic fantasy without the proverbial snowball's chance -- that it cannot happen because the gulf separating these two factions is unbridgeable? Well, think again.

There already is clear evidence it's happening in anti-corruption and campaign finance reform. Take the 2-to-1 cross-partisan vote that approved anti-corruption laws in Tallahassee, Fla., last Election Day, as Exhibit A.

Still not convinced? OK, then keep a sharp eye out for the Trans-Pacific Partnership careening into Washington, D.C., and heading for a quick up-or-down vote in Congress. Both the president and the Republican leadership in Congress are in the driver's seat. TPP - the secret trade deal many haven't heard of - is also bringing progressives and the Tea Party out in droves, and the noise they are making has the establishment concerned.

Before we unpack this trade agreement -- as much as we can -- to answer the question "What is the TPP?" we need first to put aside any confusion about what working together or becoming allies means where progressives and the Tea Party are concerned.

It will not lead to the formation of a new political party. Adversaries on the left and the right will remain so - and that's a good thing. Differences, debate, majority rule within a constitutional framework -- all are important to our democracy when representing the public at large.

That's exactly why the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the call for "fast-track" approval excite such raw emotion and common purpose even among adversaries. There is to be no debate, but simply an up-or-down vote, for a trade agreement largely negotiated in secret.

TPP is a multinational agreement some say would dwarf NAFTA in size and scope, yet only the barest outlines of its provisions are known. This much is known: Corporations are its chief beneficiaries and corporate rules will trump governments' priorities.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership would create a supranational legal framework with unprecedented levels of corporate rule over the economies, governments and people of 12 nations in the Pacific Rim and elsewhere: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the U.S. Others, including China and South Korea, are also expected to join. The TPP would unshackle major areas of regulation and free the market economy from labor rules, environmental regulations and standards over the food we eat. Indeed, a veritable feast of deregulation is the heart and soul of this so-called trade agreement. Twenty-four of the TPP's 29 chapters remove corporations from accountability to governments. Only five of the provisions relate to tariffs and actual trade matters.

We know corporations thrive on secrecy, something that is anathema to representative democracy. This is also driving the opposition. At the grass roots, both progressives and the Tea Party fear greater corporatizing of America, whether it is Big Government or Wall Street, as threats to an open society and our constitutional roots. To quote populist Jim Hightower: "Corporations are towers of secrecy, in which all information is considered a proprietary asset ... keeping as much as possible from employees, investors, customers, auditors, regulators [and] lawmakers."

If this trade agreement is a good thing, why the secrecy? If increasing our exports to the Pacific Rim and elsewhere is vital to the U.S. economy, as President Obama said in his recent State of the Union address, let's debate its provisions openly in the Congress.

This apparently is not what the president and the Republican leaders want. Instead, they are calling for "fast-track" approval. This is why progressives and the Tea Party are crying foul and mounting vigorous opposition. Each side has its own flash point -- so there is hardly a picture of cooperation and comity. The Tea Party and its grass-roots leaders play on the theme of executive overreach, calling the fast-tracking and the agreement "Obamatrade." Meanwhile, progressives stir their allies with fears that the TPP is worse than NAFTA of 1994, which led to losses in wages and jobs for U.S. workers that have never been recovered.

Both sides are pulling out all stops to prevent establishment Democrats and Republicans from ramming this agreement through to speedy and unexamined passage. The tactics and strategies also paint a picture of what cross-partisan action sometimes looks like when opposing the rule of global corporations and the mega-wealthy: To be effective, it will not always be pretty.

The anti-corruption tent must be big enough to cover more than elections and campaigns. It also must address the concern that our government is deeply controlled by corporations and dark money at core levels such as trade. Our vigilant response - what Thomas Jefferson called "the price of liberty" -- must recognize that these forces of oligarchy and economic inequality prefer to operate in secret and avoid public exposure.

David M. Goodman, Ph.D., is a team leader of the central New Jersey chapter of Represent.Us.

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