Rumor has it
Yes, we're talking about couchgate
Welcome back to the This Day In Esoteric Political History newsletter. Each week, a member of our team (or a friend of the show) gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.
Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American history…
August 2
1776: The Declaration of Independence is officially signed by 56 people
1790: The first US census finds a population of roughly four million
1923: In a hotel in San Francisco, President Warren G. Harding dies of a heart attack at the age of 57
1980: Ronald Reagan kicks off his 1980 presidential general election campaign with a speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi
August 3
1882: President Chester A. Arthur signs the first immigration restriction law, the Chinese Exclusion Act
1978: Dog owners in NYC are now responsible for cleaning up after their pet’s waste
August 4
1753: George Washington attains the title of Master Mason
1914: President Woodrow Wilson proclaims neutrality in what would become World War I
1942: The US starts an immigration program for “braceros,” agricultural workers from Mexico who came to work on farms using temporary visas
August 5
1861: The first personal income tax is imposed (3% of incomes over $800)
1981: President Ronald Reagan fires more than 11,000 air traffic controllers, who had gone on strike over failed negotiations for a new contract.
August 6
1787: The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia begins debate on the first draft of the Constitution
1838: The Missouri Mormon War begins
1930: NY Judge Joseph Force Crater disappears after getting dinner and heading to a Broadway show. He was never seen again, and his case has been a vacuum for conspiracy theories in the years since.
1964: Prometheus, the world's oldest known tree, is accidentally cut down in Nevada
August 7
1912: The Progressive (Bull Moose) Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for President
1964: Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing President Lyndon Johnson to take any measures he believed were necessary to maintain international peace and security in southeast Asia
In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more. This week is Jacob Feldman’s turn at the typewriter.
In 1923, rumors killed a sitting US President.
Around 7:20 pm on August 2nd, Warren G. Harding—in San Francisco as part of a cross-country speaking tour called “The Voyage of Understanding” in part to downplay and escape mounting allegations of corruptions and scandal in D.C.—died of a heart attack brought on by the stresses of the job. Or so the rumor goes.
I’ve been thinking a lot about rumors this week—for obvious reasons.
Whispers, gossip, and hearsay have been a part of American politics for as long as American politics have been a thing. George Washington’s status as a Masonic leader fueled decades of conspiracies. It might be easier to list the elections that didn’t at some point involve reports (not always fictitious!) of candidates having secret children out of wedlock.
But we seem to be in a new era of campaign rumors, fueled by online news sources and sh*tposters. Donald Trump’s modern political career essentially began by fanning the flames of the baseless rumor that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
“Rumor” encompasses a lot, from jokes to allegations to bad-faith misinformation. Sometimes the rumors are true—as was the case with many of Harding’s troubles. Sometimes, they’re not.
The unnamed progenitor of the JD Vance-couch shipping turned out to be an English major who chalked up the attack’s virality to its “ecstatic truth” as a falsehood that still can "make some essence of the man visible." It feels like it could be true, basically.
Which I think undersells the power of rumor.
Rumors aren’t only effective by connecting to existing perception. They have the power in themselves to shape our view of people, and thus change lives. Some negative polls probably didn’t actually cause a heart attack this week in 1923. It just feels like that could be true.
A Bit More Esoterica
For more on the esoteric political history of gossip, check out the two episodes we did with the fantastic hosts of the show “Normal Gossip.”
Listener Alison chimed in after Thursday’s episode came out to share another cool show talking about the one-of-a-kind James Traficant.
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