Manipulating the political marketplace

Will social media's restrictions on Donald Trump reduce his appeal? Or will it just fuel the pent-up demand for his brand of anti-democratic politics?

To reduce demand for toxic politics, we might consider lessons from the tobacco wars. (Photo: Micah Carlson/Unsplash)

Maybe you know some people like this: The less you see of them, the more you like them. You know what I mean? Sometimes that’s how our political system works, too. 

About a year and a half before the 1988 presidential election, my editors at a big downstate newspaper decided that I should cover the presidential campaign of our governor, Mario Cuomo. Democrats around the country had been dreaming of a Cuomo presidency since his eloquent national convention speech in 1984, so the campaign was bound to launch soon – or so said conventional wisdom.

For months, then, I went everywhere the governor did, from Moscow to Seattle and beyond, tracking a campaign that did not, in fact, launch at all. Yet the fact that there was no candidacy to rally around did not discourage the Cuomo enthusiasts. It finally occurred to me, during a “Draft Cuomo” meeting in San Francisco, that I migh…