Perspective: The politics of tariffs, T-shirts and dolls

Yahoo

08-05-2025

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Democratic strategist James Carville is a reliable quote machine, and he didn't disappoint on last week's town hall hosted by Chris Cuomo on NewsNation.
'I have on six items of clothes: shoes, socks, jeans, skivvies, T-shirt, and sweatshirt. You know how many of these were made in America? None. None,' Carville said. 'And I don't want to live in a country that makes T-shirts. I can buy them from somewhere else.'
Asked for clarification by fellow guest Bill O'Reilly, Carville dug in: 'We make airplanes, we make movies. We drill oil, we make all kinds of things. We don't need to make T-shirts.'
It was one of the more provocative exchanges to occur throughout the tariff debate, on par with Donald Trump saying that children 'might have two dolls instead of 30 dolls' because of higher priced toys.
Whether you're pro-tariffs or anti-tariffs or even a tariff agnostic, there's plenty to chew on here, starting with, what was Carville thinking?
'Buy American' has long been a patriotic motto, going back to the Buy American Act of 1933, which directed the federal government to give preference to domestic goods.
Yes, the world is now flat, as Thomas Friedman told us, but if someone down the street is making T-shirts and selling them for $20, there's a whole wide world of reasons to buy them from your neighbors rather than have the $5 ones shipped from overseas. As Democratic leaders try to brand the GOP as the 'party of oligarchs' it was a surprisingly oligarchish thing for Carville to say.
How many dolls is enough?
Amid all the dire predictions about how much Christmas is going to cost this year — the worst being the guy who told The Wall Street Journal 'there will be no Christmas,' as if he never heard of Whoville — can Trump opponents at least concede that no American child needs 30 toys, let alone 30 dolls?
Outside of the tariff debate, we are long overdue for a discussion of the Dollar Store-ization of America where everything is devalued when it only costs a dollar or two. And the cheaper stuff is, the more likely we are to throw it away, which is why, as journalist Alexander Clapp writes in his new book 'Waste Wars,' American trash is being shipped off to other countries.
'By the early 2000s, Americans' biggest export to China was the stuff Americans tossed away,' Clapp writes. China put a stop to it in 2018, but for three previous decades, 'China had been the recipient of half the plastic placed into a recycling bin anywhere on Earth.'
What we don't throw away or stuff in self-storage units, we enthusiastically donate to Goodwill and other thrift shops, where, I am convinced, there is an ample supply of dolls and other plastic toys to supply Christmases through the next century.
All of which is to say, there are many trickle-down conversations to be had about tariffs and their effect on global commerce. You can want to Make America Great Again and also not want to turn the planet into a dumping ground of plastic waste, and also believe that Christmas doesn't come from the Dollar General.
And, for the record, what's the right number of toys that a child should have? According to one study, per Today.com, four. (That's similar to advice I found when researching the best number of Christmas gifts a few years ago: many parents say three or four.)
The child psychologist John Rosemond has said, '... if you want a child to play more independently and imaginatively, simply get rid of 90% of the child's toys, keeping those that were in production before 1955.'
Quote of the Week
'It's like having the news reported by the Ghost of Christmas yet to come — you're not seeing the things that will be, you're seeing the things that might be.' — Author and podcaster Andrew Klavan on the Megyn Kelly Show, talking about negative news coverage of President Donald Trump.
Recommended Reading
Sarah Jane Weaver thoughtfully responds to an AI-generated photo of Donald Trump dressed as the pope that was shared by the White House:
'Many are saying the AI-generated photograph was a joke — and should not be taken seriously. (The late) Pope Francis, himself, I am sure, found time to laugh. Still, he also understood what should be reverenced."
The Lessons of 3 Images — 2 From a Pope, 1 From a President
Utah businessman Jeremy Barker makes the case for tariffs:
'Yes, tariffs may raise prices in the short term. But they also encourage smarter, more local production — something the pandemic proved we urgently need. When global trade stalled in 2020, companies relying on distant suppliers faced shortages and slowdowns."
Why I Love Tariffs — And Why Utah Should, Too
Naomi Schaefer Riley recently read a memoir by the actor Rob Lowe, who wrote about the experience of growing up with divorced parents. She connects his experience to the struggles of many young men today.
'If we want to understand why so many young men are so at sea trying to figure out their place in the world and how they should relate to the opposite sex, it is worth understanding what they miss when they grow up separated from their fathers.'
The 'Manosphere' Can't Give Boys What They Need the Most
Endnotes
I have been trying to ignore the Bill Belichick-Jordon Hudson story for months, but it finally boiled over to the point where ignoring it wasn't an option anymore. Hence, this op-ed entitled 'We Are Living in a Sea of Cringe.'
After it was published, a reader took me to task for the last line, which reads 'Andy Reid has never looked so good.'
He said I should have written 'LaVell Edwards has never looked so good,' and that's a fair point. The legendary BYU coach should have been a contender along with my second choice, which had been Notre Dame's Lou Holtz.
So here's your chance to edit the editor. What would you have written when trying to compare Bill Belichick with any other coach? What was the best ending to that column, in your book?
Let me know at [e-mail] or send me a DM on X, @grahamtoday. And don't forget that Sunday is Mother's Day.
As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community.