Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
JANAN GANESH
Benjamin Disraeli's use of 'Tory men and Whig measures' remains the surest way to electoral glory © Chris Hellier/Corbis/Getty
Benjamin Disraeli wrote in praise of “Tory men and Whig measures”. Almost a
century and a half since he was Britain’s premier, that mix remains the surest way to
electoral glory, and not just there. It is, come to think of it, a serviceable definition of
populism.
Lots of Americans admire the left’s economic “measures” more than the cultural
instincts of its leaders. A conservative who offers the first without the second stands to
prise them away from the Democrats.
The oddity is not that Donald Trump intuited as much in 2016. It is that no other
Republican had got there first. It is too late for the US president to have a good crisis.
He cannot go back to January and take Covid-19 with due seriousness. What there is
still time for — just — is the most lavish possible mitigation of the economic effects.
What there is still time for is a Republican man and Democratic measures.
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5/27/2020 Donald Trump has a way to win the US presidency again: spend massively | Financial Times
As his standing deteriorates, then, Mr Trump has one hope. He must “own” the fiscal
effort to save the economy. This means demanding another bill to that end —
Congress passed the first in April — and skewing it to households over business. It
means rivalling Joe Biden’s Democrats for federal largesse and not fretting about
moral hazard. The president must spend his way to re-election.
There is a myth that Americans are a uniquely rugged lot, itching to take their chances
in the market. It was a quaint enough view before the pandemic, when Medicare and
Social Security were vastly popular. It is positively cloth-eared now.
Some 79 per cent of voters approved of the March relief package, the third aid bill
passed by Congress, even when pollsters spelt out the $2tn cost. Also, 59 per cent of
voters wanted another. And this is before the scale of US unemployment became a
matter of distressing record.
As for the restoration of normality, most Americans worry instead about the
premature opening of schools, colleges and businesses. If there is a silent majority of
bravehearts out there, their silence extends to anonymous surveys.
Mr Trump’s biggest problem is not, as he seems to think, the recession itself. Voters
know that it occurred in once-in-a-century circumstances, across the world. What
they will punish is any foot-dragging over the relief effort.
Congressional Republicans are open to more aid but in unspecified form and in no
great rush. A “leftwing wish list” is how Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader,
describes the bill that passed the House of Representatives this month. Some want to
graft on cuts to welfare or play hardball with states. Yet others are just awaiting
direction from an inscrutable White House.
The more this drags on, the less voters can predict Republican behaviour in the future.
The next four years could bring a new virus-enforced lockdown, or at least a glacial
recovery from this one.
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5/27/2020 Donald Trump has a way to win the US presidency again: spend massively | Financial Times
In the first case, there will have to be another round of relief as people stay home. The
second might call for a stimulus to get things going. Either way, active government
will be essential. A party that shows doctrinal qualms about it, in a country that can
borrow almost without limit, will have trouble justifying itself.
If this entailed the invention from scratch of a new political identity, it would not be
worth floating. After all, 73-year-old men tend not to change. But he just has to live up
to his campaign of 2016. Having run against the kind of free-marketeers who refer to
“human capital stock”, the president has governed in their image.
The infrastructure splurge never came, but a high-income tax cut did. A war on
Obamacare unnerved voters in time for the midterm elections. No industry lobbyist
could have asked for more deregulation.
Before the pandemic, Mr Trump had seemed to run out of time and opportunities to
redeem the promise of four years ago. He now has one more chance. Disraeli would
not have balked at the price tag.
janan.ganesh@ft.com
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