It would be good if we could discuss it without it being flagged again. In the interests of political balance, I'd like to mention that I find Democratic hostility to free trade policy quite as benighted as GOP hostility to certain lines of economic inquiry.
As to the article: I fear I'm getting a bit burned out on political topics (which it mostly is). It seems impossible for me, personally, to change any of it for the better, and so much of political news is disappointing, especially when it involves science. As you correctly pointed out in the other thread, it's just as bad on left-leaning sites with regard to GMO topics.
The U.S. has held a position of technological and economic prominence through most of the 19th and 20th centuries, but we are far, far behind now on education -- a problem which will be punishing us for the rest of the century at least -- and funding for scientific research, which drives technological advancement, has been under assault from so many directions for decades now. Switzerland won the biggest discovery in physics so far this century, but it could have been done years ago in Texas (http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/how-texas-lost-worlds-larg...). Our most realistic hopes and dreams for space exploration now rest on a single company. Other countries are starting to take their first steps towards space (http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/07/uae-plans-to-fly-s...) while NASA still tries to do the best they can with shamefully little funding. (I'm not yet willing to give them even odds of getting there on time though.) Germany's leading the world in development of renewable energy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany), France has the best nuclear reactors in the world (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_France), Canada has some of the best health care in the world (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada) ... all things the U.S. has the resources to compete in, but doesn't because of politics.
So there are political groups that are strangling our future for the sake of present interests. There doesn't seem to be much that can be done about it because they represent the desires of a large number of people. Maybe the enormous wealth and other remaining advantages in the U.S. will keep things on a more or less even keel for a long time to come; maybe the U.S. will slide behind the rest of the world and there will be another diaspora of science and technology to other countries. Who knows.
I agree with the rest of your post about an excess focus short-term interests hurting our long term strategic position.
