Opinion: Cost of living crisis Trumps celebrity endorsements

Cavanman's Diary

One would swear from the predictable, performatively-shrill reaction in Ireland – meltdowns across social media and the commentariat all but weeping – that Donald Trump’s return to the White House was some sort of surprise. It was far from it; Trump was favourite with the bookmakers to win the election and, where money is concerned, sentiment is well down the list of priorities (more of which later).

The bookies knew; the rest, if their heads were screwed on, should have known too, but some just couldn’t bring themselves to admit that the American people would reject what they were being sold by the Democrats.

And ‘sold’ is the operative word there. Because the alternative to Trump and Vice-President JD Vance was the appallingly poor ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who struck me as little more than a pair of very weak character actors, hamming it up for the masses.

Walz’s folksy role was bad enough but Harris, for this writer anyway, could not have come across as more fake if she tried. The forced laughter, the ‘down with the kids’ shtick, all grated. It didn’t feel real. Were it a Hollywood blockbuster, her performance would have been panned as wooden and unbelievable.

Allied to this attempt at codding the electorate, the Democrats showed how out of touch they were by positioning themselves as the party of celebrity. Of course, Trump was guilty of that too – Hulk Hogan ran wild, to use his own parlance, at one of his rallies – to a lesser extent, but the Dems really bought into it, with the likes of Beyoncé, Eminem, George Clooney, Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen all pledging their support, and some even appearing on stage with Harris.

How this - pushing gazillionaire pop stars and the like front and centre - was supposed to appeal to voters, God knows. It’s eight years since UK politician Michael Gove famously stated that “people in this country have had enough of experts”; while that was an unfortunate choice of words, the sentiments are accurate to some extent. Ordinary people are sick of those in positions of privilege and power dictating how they should live their lives, tut-tutting about issues which are well down their lists of priorities, if they’re on the list at all.

We’ve seen this sort of carry-on in Ireland too. There was a criticism of Leo Varadkar’s administration, especially during the early part of the pandemic, that they bore a resemblance to preening stars on a movie set, with the then-Taoiseach peppering his addresses with quotes from pop stars and films and his department reluctantly releasing a note he wrote asking to meet Kylie Minogue.

In his new memoir, one of Varadkar’s allies from that time, Eoghan Murphy, writes about the two taking part in a fun run “to show off our youth and energy”.

There are takeaways and beers, glasses of whiskey – just a pair of mates hanging out. “Two guys across a table, the country’s future in our hands,” he writes melodramatically.

For all that Trump’s success has been billed as a triumph for strongman politics, it is more likely a rejection of the weakman version, to coin a phrase - and we have plenty of those in Ireland too, with a reckoning coming for them shortly.

Still, it has been an interesting time to follow politics on both sides of the Atlantic. I recall visiting New York when the Cavan team played over there in April 2015, and speaking to a number of prominent Irish-Americans who had been in the States, by then, for the guts of three decades. Several were appalled that Trump might even win the Republican nomination, let alone win the whole thing out.

In the years since, I sense that has changed. Talking to some of the same people, their stance has softened. They’re alarmed with where the country is and to where it seems headed, and they’re sick of politicians peeing on their legs and telling them it’s raining – and, perhaps worse, rolling out mega-rich pop stars to do the same via carefully-crafted social media posts.

For all the talk about division, then, it’s clear the widest gap is between some political leaders and the general population; one group lives in the real world, the other inhabits a different one altogether.

At the risk of trying to sound wise after the fact (moi?), it was clear to me that Trump would win from talking to Americans at the World Handball Championships last week. In fact, so struck was I by what they said that I actually placed a bet on Trump to win the popular vote, which was considered unlikely even if he did get his nose in front in the race for the White House itself.

Now, it should be noted that, apart from those who play outdoor handball in New York or on the west coast, a lot of American handball players are white and college-educated, a grouping from which the Democrats were expected to draw a lot of support.

Several of them, I actually knew from trips to the States to play in Collegiate tournaments back in the day.

Those I spoke to varied in age but each were singing the same song: The cost of living, they said, is insane.

“Until you actually visit the States, you won’t understand it,” one man – 50-odd, blue-leaning I would have thought – told me.

Various examples were proffered. Two cups of coffee, $25; a small basket of groceries, 100 bucks. A bottle of beer, $13 (around €12.25).

I made it my business to ask them how they found Ireland, price-wise. All felt that this country, and even Dublin, was quite reasonable. One was particularly satisfied with the cost of his hotel, which came in at just under €300 a night. “Wouldn’t get it back home,” he told me.

So the biggest issue here was that many Americans have been bent to breaking point by inflation. They have genuine concerns about immigration and about the unravelling of the social fabric in their country. One of those I spoke to last week had recently visited Seattle, San Francisco and Washington DC and reported that they were shocked by what they saw in all three – tent cities, spiralling prices.

Coast to coast, that’s thousands of miles – and in between is the rust belt and wider Mid-West, which has been destroyed by the collapse of industry and the opioid crisis.

They wanted an alternative and were dismissed, as they have been since, as uneducated and ignorant. Ignore the noise: the truth is, the Democrats played a dangerous and silly game and paid a heavy price.

Postscript:

Talk of Beyoncé brought to mind the hilarious clip from Radio Kerry which went viral a few years ago (it’s worth looking up if you haven’t seen it). Football fanatic, the late Weeshie Fogarty, was referencing a member of the crew who was attending a concert by Beyoncé in Dublin.

“Sinéad is gone to hear Beyance… Beyankay, Beyancé… They’re shouting into my ear here,” the great Kerryman lilted.

And later: “Who’s he?... oh it’s a she. Is it a band? Will there be a big crowd at that? Beyanshee is it?”

Suffice to say that the presence of the former Destiny’s Child singer on the hustings wouldn’t have been enough to secure Weeshie’s number one.