Rafael Bernstein

“Being a general in an autocracy is a thankless job,” Mr. Dirsus said. “If you are seen as effective and your subordinates like you, you develop an alternative power center, and the autocrat feels threatened by you. But if you perform poorly, the autocrat also doesn’t like you.”

In the 1960s the average US household spent 10% of its annual income on clothes and shoes, according to the BLS and the American Apparel and Footwear Association, and roughly 95% of those items were made domestically. Today it spends 4%, and nearly 97% is made abroad.

Crockett, however, is poorly positioned to pick up Trump defectors. In November, 49 percent of Texas voters told pollsters they would definitely not vote for her. Only 40 percent said that of Talarico.

Such numbers may explain why Republicans, according to the political news site NOTUS, worked behind the scenes to push Crockett into the race. The... See more