It's The Mainstream, Stupid

From this week's U.S. News & World Report:

On Sale Now: the Wal-Mart Vote

It used to be "soccer moms" who held the key to elections. Then it was the opinion of NASCAR dads that gave the best indicator of who would get elected, followed by the "investor class." Now there's a new electoral predictor: the retail giant you prefer. According to pollster John Zogby, who discovered the trend, Democrats prefer Bloomingdale's and Neiman Marcus. Republicans trek to J.C. Penney, Sears, and Target. And then there's Wal-Mart. More than any store in the nation, its GOP-leaning customers can accurately predict which candidate will sell. "It was the No. 1 indicator in 2004," says Zogby, who now polls weekly Wal-Mart shoppers.

Zogby is a Wal-Mart devotee, though he once swore he'd never go in one, buying into the hype that it was killing Main Street. That all changed years ago when he needed an air conditioner and found one at Wal-Mart for 25 percent off. "That comes under the category of 'Duh,'" jokes Zogby, who'll expand on the Wal-Mart effect in a new Random House book on the American consumer out next year. Wal-Mart shoppers matter, he says, because they represent small-town America. And right now they don't like President Bush, giving him a low 35 percent approval rating. That's bad, because to win, says Zogby, "Republicans have got to get three quarters of Wal-Mart voters." But it's not deadly, he adds, because the Democrats aren't ready to answer the call for a mop on Aisle 3.

Nor will they be ready. The 'Rats long ago became the party of the snobby elitists and fringe wackos.

Got that PARDners? "Wal-Mart shoppers matter because they represent small-town America," i.e. we are the mainstream. Your anti-Wal-Mart jihad is OUTSIDE the mainstream. I wish Wal-Mart was being approved by the voters and not by a judge.

The Whitman County Democratic Party, which is filled with PARDners, tried to make bashing Wal-Mart an issue in last year's Pullman City Council race and their candidates got creamed. If the local 'Rats continue to follow that strategy, and if the national party elects to do so, they will pay a heavy price.

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