Billionaires in America have big wallets, but they also have big egos. Many have a tendency to think that success in the business world will smoothly translate into success in politics — if you climbed the ladder to the top of a Fortune 500 corporation or created a global retail chain that nets billions of dollars in revenue every year, perhaps you would think running the country would be a cakewalk too.
Ross Perot, the eccentric billionaire from Texas, ran for president as an independent twice and claimed nearly 20 million votes, more than 18.9 percent of the popular vote, in the 1992 election. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been flirting with a presidential candidacy for more than a decade. Tom Steyer, the California hedge fund titan, dreamed about a White House run all last year, before eventually deciding it would be better for him to focus his efforts and $40 million of his money to the impeachment of President Trump. Trump, of course, used his personal wealth and salesmanship in the real estate and celebrity worlds as proof that he could clean up Washington and throw the dead weight overboard.
Now we can place former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, a lifelong Democrat, into that category. Speaking to “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Schultz admitted that he was seriously thinking about running for president in 2020 on a centrist, independent platform of fiscal prudence and social progressivism. Democratic presidential candidates such as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, not to mention the Democratic consulting class, view a Schultz candidacy as a 21st-century incarnation of Ralph Nader: Voters who would normally cast their ballots for the Democratic nominee instead opt for a third party. At a time when Democrats nationwide are united on the singular goal of kicking Trump off the White House grounds, the thought of another Nader or the Green Party’s Jill Stein is a nightmare scenario.
Howard Schultz is not exactly a household name like Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Before his “60 Minutes” interview, most Americans probably had no clue who he was. A Dec. 6-9, 2018, CNN poll of likely 2020 Democratic presidential candidates didn’t even include Schultz on the list. The guy may have an attractive personal story — he grew up in the Brooklyn projects, only to turn Starbucks into one of the most recognizable brands in the world — and deep pockets — his net worth is reported to be somewhere in the league of $3.3 billion — but he remains a nonentity in terms of being a political candidate.
Yet while he may be unrecognizable on the street, Schultz’s prospective presidential platform is not a bad plank to run on: that of a calm, no-nonsense political centrist that can bring Republicans, Democrats, independents, libertarians, socialists, and everyone in between together to get concrete things done for the public. Although Americans are getting increasingly polarized in their political views, they are also increasingly disenfranchised about what American politics has become and how little has been produced.
Many Americans look upon Washington with extensive disgust and almost assume nothing of consequence will get done. According to a Pew Research Center poll taken after the 2018 midterm elections, 63 percent of Americans surveyed said Trump would be unsuccessful in getting his programs passed. About 61 percent said the same about Democratic leaders in Congress. Public opinion polls consistently show Congress as one of the most despised institutions in the country; Congress hasn’t cracked 40 percent approval since 2009, when RealClearPolitics started averaging the data.
As a businessman, Schultz can read the polls and see that there is a heavy malaise and viciousness in the body politic. The malaise has been there for quite a long time, and it has remained there regardless of which political party controls the White House or Capitol Hill. During an interview with the New York Times last weekend, Schultz briefly touched upon the theme, telling the paper, “We have a broken political system with both parties basically in business to preserve their own ideology without a recognition and responsibility to represent the interests of the American people.”
In Schultz’s telling, Republicans and Democrats have both failed their constituents by putting “revenge politics” and political gamesmanship above the concerns of average Americans. His campaign strategy, if in fact the coffee mogul decides to launch a campaign, is anchored to a classic “throw the bums out” message, one voters have been sympathetic with throughout history.
At first blush, it may appear odd that a business elite like Schultz would use populist overtones to introduce and sell himself to voters. But it wasn’t so long ago when another billionaire with no political experience was catapulted into the White House on a wave of populist anger at the political establishments of America’s two-party monopoly.
Schultz will not be the next president of the United States. But his marketing campaign is low-hanging fruit Americans across the country have plucked before — Republicans are running to the right, Democrats are running to the left, and the pragmatic ideological middle is left behind, wondering whether either party has left them for good. Who knows, the fruit may still be ripe.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
