Those are my tax dollars buying those things... I don't want to pay a premium because of your political values.
Actually, it is everyone's tax dollars buying those things, so why should your political values take precedence over anyone else's.
And paying more for a a product or service doesn't create or protect jobs. If I pay $2 for a $1 candybar at the gas station, it doesn't mean the gas station attendant gets paid more;
That doesn't sound like a supportable stance. When the economy gets tight the first thing that happens is a round of layoffs to reduce expenditure. This is in direct opposition to your argument.
In the rush to provide cheaper prices, supermarkets in my area are moving towards self-service checkouts rather than employ extra people. If I want to support the jobs of people in my local community and shop at the only store that hasn't done this, then I have to pay more at the checkout.
If a local manufacturing business can't afford to continue pay the wages of workers in this country then they will outsource production to cheaper countries (like China). Those businesses will still survive (at least in the short term), but it doesn't do much for protecting local jobs.
And if the gas station can't charge $2 for a $1 candy bar, just how will the stations afford to pay the same wages to the attendants? You know, back in the day we used to have full service gas stations, rather than just one person stuck behind a counter. How's that job protection going?
The United States became an economic superpower because it has steadfastly refused to take up the ideology you're preaching: The restriction of international trade, closing of our borders, and producing everything internally
You become an economic superpower by being wealthy, which means selling more than you buy (although being a political and military superpower helps too). You can increase your exports in the short term by opening trade bilaterally, but eventually you just have the effect of evening the playing field until you no longer have superpower status and countries are more equal. To maintain the illusion of superpower status you have to live beyond your means and rely on credit.
But I don't want to sound like I am against free trade. It certainly is important, but it is not the final word in economic policy. If you think that you can open your borders to free trade and then tick the box to say that the economy is done then you are being naive. It is more complicated than that, and rigidly sticking to an ideology without looking at real-world exceptions can be detrimental to society. Sometimes you still need to provide subsidies or protection to local businesses to ensure jobs creation, guarantee of supply, manage environmental impact, etc.