Expression of opinion in the United States tradition

The American currency is decorated with electoral campaign slogans

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If you were shopping around the United States at the moment, you'd probably get a dollar bill or more, in a store, with US President Donald Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again". This is an uncommon way to spread the presidential message And it raises curiosity and an incentive to know its source, although knowing who is behind this initiative is almost impossible.

However, the design of this advertisement is very simple, ink stamp designs from traditional e-commerce sites are available, and their value does not exceed $ 20, and all that remains is to place a stamp of your choice on the most used currency in the world, and more specifically on banknotes of the category The one dollar, which carries the image of former US President George Washington, who is considered "the father of the nation", and the five-dollar denomination of President Abraham Lincoln.

This is done legally, and US Treasury Department directives stipulated that “damaging the currency is punishable by a fine, or imprisonment for a period of up to six months, or with both penalties” if the ink covers the serial number or if it is an advertisement.

The banknote stamp is not limited to the presidential emblem, as it has been widely used on the $ 20 bills that carry the White House on its back, and a stamp that says, "Donald Trump lives here." The matter was highly appreciated by the president's son, who congratulated a fan at Texas gifted him a banknote bearing this stamp.

Mission Impossible

Understanding the source of these sealed coins is an impossible task, and whether these stamps were the work of supporters of the Republican president, or their method since 2016, and in this, says a law professor at Stetson University in Florida, Ciara Torres Spelice: “We do not know who is behind this propaganda. », And it seems that many of the president’s supporters agree with it. They have heard of this propaganda on the monetary groups, but they do not know who stamps it.

In an article dated March 22, 2018, the "San Francisco Chronicle" indicated that "American."

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F », a pro-Republican Party, was promoting classes worth $ 20 stamped with party slogans on social media.

On its website, where clothes that celebrate President Trump are also sold, this group swears that it “does not devalue the US currency, but rather adorns dollars” with political messages, and therefore the company supports the act but is not the party behind it.

"We will never know for sure who started stamping the slogan (Make America Great Again) on the US currency, but this is a long-standing tradition," said University of Massachusetts professor of communication, Stephen Ginkarella Olprice, and this partisan hype has not been heard before in the states. About the movement launched by the "The Stamp Stanbide" group in 2012: "They opposed the political campaign finance system and demanded a constitutional amendment," says Spelice, about the movement that says, "Do not use to bribe politicians" and "money is not." freedom of expression".

Stamp Stanpedy Group estimated, at the time, that each banknote stamped with slogans was seen on average by 875 people, meaning that if 100 people stamped $ 10 bills a day for a year, their message would reach more than 300 million people. Therefore, it is impossible to assess the magnitude of this phenomenon and the strength of its spread throughout America, especially during the epidemic.

"They can, despite everything, influence the local or regional level, and I have seen many banknotes on them (Make America great again) in California, which is a democratic state where it is a model of resistance," says Spelice.

Expression method

In 1976, two dollar bills were distributed stamped with the phrase "these farm dollars", to emphasize the economic importance of agriculture, then in the 1990s there were "Jews in the interest of Clinton" and "Bush accountability" and "arms owners", and in 2016, a solution The face of Harriet Tubman, an end slavery activist in America, replaced President Andrew Jackson on the $ 20 bill.

It is a “disorganized” method of self-expression that cannot be tracked or monitored, University of Massachusetts professor of communication, Stephen Ginkarella Olprice, says. “This practice has not subsided since then, but it comes in waves, and it is now part of the normalization of hate speech in the states. United ».

The same goes for the Democratic response. Dollars have been stamped with the words "Biden 2020," but they are not common at the party base, and Olpress offers a logical explanation: "Donald Trump's populist rhetoric fits this kind of practice, unlike Joe Biden's moderate message."

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