Jeet Heer at the New Republic argues that “Perhaps it’s time, then, for Democrats to take a page out of the Republican playbook and put a celebrity up for national office.”
We expect losing parties to grasp at straws and seek magic formulas. But this one isn’t just bad; it’s dangerous.
To begin with, it’s not at all clear that Heer’s two examples of celebrity presidential victories — Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump — really demonstrate any advantages for Hollywood-style politicians. Reagan did defeat Jimmy Carter handily, but Carter was massively unpopular; there’s no particular reason to believe that Reagan’s nomination opponents such as Howard Baker or Bob Dole or George H.W. Bush would have done any worse.
And Trump? He may be a celebrity, but it sure hasn’t made him very popular. Indeed, he polled badly throughout the fall campaign and, of course, received almost 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. If anything, Trump did somewhat worse than “fundamentals” based projections suggested given the state of the economy.
More broadly, Heer makes much of the idea of “charisma.” But while it’s easy to call folks such as Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton “drab” and “dowdy,” it’s worth noting that each of them won a nomination by winning primary elections in which presumably voters found them more appealing than their rivals. Indeed, it’s quite possible that winning creates charisma, rather than charisma helping candidates win.
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