This election year has brought the usual mud-slinging and finger-pointing. But one bit of hoopla seems to be missing: the campaign button.
Buttons plugging presidential candidates haven`t disappeared, but their numbers have plummeted from the days when volunteers passed out ”Nixon`s the One.” Indeed, it took repeated calls to local campaign offices just to locate a few.
The decline of the campaign button ”is explainable in terms of cost,”
according to Tom Slater, owner of the Political Gallery in Indianapolis, which specializes in campaign collectibles. ”In 1952, the `I Like Ike` buttons cost 1.2 cents a piece. Today, they`re going to cost more like 50 to 75 cents each to produce.
Adds Slater: ”One of the main reasons to wear a button was to show that you were ready to proselytize for your candidate. Nowadays, people are not as confident about communicating their politics.”
Whatever the reasons, no one is likely to pay for Junior`s college tuition by hoarding a 1992 political pin. Compare that with the 1920 button touting the James Cox-Franklin Roosevelt ticket, which today sells for nearly $50,000.
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