The Economist UK - 31.08.2019

36 United States The EconomistAugust 31st 2019

2

W

illiam henry harrisonwas 66 in

1839 when he became the Whigs’

presidential candidate. His rivals

mocked his advanced age, calling him

Granny and joking, “Give him a barrel of

hard cider, and...a pension of two thou-

sand [dollars] a year...and...he will sit the

remainder of his days in a log cabin.”

Harrison ran with the insult. Though

born to a wealthy family, he styled him-

self the log-cabin- and-cider candidate, a

man of the people. He cast his opponent,

Martin Van Buren, as an out-of-touch

elitist. His supporters sold trinkets—

plates, lamps and handkerchiefs—with

log-cabin designs.

Thus began the American political

tradition of producing and distributing

campaign merchandise. Usually a cam-

paign hands out yard signs, buttons and

stickers with the candidate’s name and

perhaps an anodyne slogan such as

“Kamala Harris For the People” or “War-

ren Has a Plan for That”. Donald Trump’s

campaign takes a different approach.

Rather than bland slogans designed

not to offend, his campaign prefers red

meat for the base. Earlier this summer,

the president’s campaign began selling

branded Trump plastic straws after his

campaign manager grew frustrated with

a flimsy paper one. They cost $15 for a

pack of ten, but sold out quickly.

The straws are not just straws. They

express the sort of cultural grievance that

has defined Mr Trump’s presidency.

“Liberals want to ban us,” the straws say

to his supporters, “but we work better

than the politically correct alternative.

You like us and using us lets you show

your support while triggering the libs.”

Mr Trump’s party has followed suit: a few

days after Mr Trump baffled the world by

musing about buying Greenland, the

National Republican Congressional

Committee began flogging T-shirts de-

picting the island as part of America.

His campaign also sells material such

as “Pencil-Neck Adam Schiff”t-shirts,

which depict the chairman of the House

Intelligence Committee as a clown, and

“Fredo Unhinged” shirts, which show

Chris Cuomo, a television anchor, mid-

meltdown. Campaigns usually leave

such mean stuff, such as Bill Clinton

corkscrews (you can guess where the

screw protrudes) or Hillary Clinton

nutcrackers, to third parties.

Mr Trump’s campaign is nimble. The

Cuomo shirts were on sale a day after the

anchor threatened to shove someone

down a flight of stairs for calling him

Fredo, the weak brother in the Godfather

films.Politico, which covers Washington

politics, reported that the campaign

manager’s straw broke as he was board-

ing a flight. By the time he landed, the

campaign was already advertising the

Trump straws. They were not focus-

grouped or run through committees, just

made and sold. That works for trinkets. It

may be less effective for policy.

The first straw

Political merchandise

WASHINGTON, DC

Donald Trump’s campaign swag comes tinged with cultural grievances

Getting ahead in politics

otherwise, this is costing consumers as

much as $70bn per year, or 0.25% of gdp.

The costs to the American economy are

probably higher than that. When moving

house is so expensive, many people may

not bother. That means less spending on

services associated with moving home,

such as gardening and decorating. Worse, it

may also be suppressing mobility in Amer-

ica. Ben Harris, who was the chief econo-

mist for Joe Biden when he was vice-presi-

dent, argues that average incomes in

poorer cities are not catching up with those

in rich ones, “in part because people aren’t

moving any more”. Extortionate real-estate

commissions are hardly the only pro-

blem—wealthy cities such as San Francisco

need to build new housing if people are to

move to better-paying jobs there. But they

certainly do not help. 7

J

oe walshmight seem an odd foil to Pres-

ident Donald Trump. The media-savvy

former congressman, a Tea Party-fire-

brand, who announced his Republican

primary challenge to the president on Au-

gust 25th, has had a long record of contro-

versial and (self-admitted) racist remarks

in his record as both a politician and radio

host. “I do feel a responsibility for helping

to put Trump in the White House. And I

have publicly apologised for that, because

to me Donald Trump is like the worst ver-

sion of a Joe Walsh,” he says.

Yet Mr Walsh is plunging into the

treacherous waters of primarying a sitting

president, all the same. He was not a de-

voted Never Trumper. In his telling, the

spectacle in Helsinki of an American presi-

dent trusting Vladimir Putin over his own

intelligence agencies put him permanently

off. The rest of his fellow Republicans

might not see it that way. Although the

party’s most prominent public intellectu-

als—like William Kristol and George Will—

have long despised Mr Trump, the voting

base remains utterly devoted. Among Re-

publicans, 87% approve of the job that Mr

Trump is doing.

Much of Mr Walsh’s campaign will fo-

cus on the president’s character. The big-

gest policy issue that he raises—the

mounting national debt, which Tea Par-

tiers raged against in 2010—is not one that

Republicans fret over anymore. He also

faults Mr Trump for a “ridiculous” tariff

policy and the “public dance” done with

Kim Jong Un, the dictator of North Korea.

But on other points, like ending the Iran

nuclear deal and the Paris climate agree-

ment, he sides with the president.

One big problem looms for Mr Walsh’s

candidacy. Since announcing his presiden-

tial bid, past ugly comments have resur-

faced and forced a reckoning. “I wouldn’t

call myself a racist, but... I’ve said racist

things on Twitter,” he said in a recent tele-

vision interview. Many saw him as a proto-

Trump—a booster of the conspiracy theory

that Barack Obama was a Kenyan-born

Muslim. Though Mr Walsh has since re-

canted, the long list of such remarks might

spoil his chances with disaffected Republi-

can voters. Asked whether the president

was a racist, or merely someone who says

racist things on Twitter, Mr Walsh answers

this way: “I think he uses racism for his

own self-interest. I think he uses bigotry

and xenophobia. And he can use it if it will

help Donald Trump, because all Donald

Trump cares about is Donald Trump.” 7

A former Republican congressman

tries to dethrone Donald Trump

The 2020 election

The other primary