I'm increasingly of the belief that free trade policies were popular in the United States because: 1. The expansion of communism was a serious threat 2. It was widely believed that the US was the greatest trading nation in the world. You want free trade if you're the best at it.
No, I don't. Japan out-trades the United States with similar wages and strict environmental laws. To your point, yes, China took a lot of business from the US that American citizens didn't want because of the environmental byproducts.