can we?

can we?

February 8, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Questions for Dr. Retail
By DAVID BROOKS
QUESTION: Dr. Retail, now that the Democratic presidential race has
entered its long, bloody slog phase, I figured it was time to get a
fresh perspective. Can you explain to me what it’s all about?

DR. RETAIL: Why do you bother me with simple problems? Listen, the
essential competition in many consumer sectors is between commodity
providers and experience providers, the companies that just deliver
product and the companies that deliver a sensation, too. There’s
Safeway, and then there is Whole Foods. There’s the PC, and then there’s
the Mac. There are Holiday Inns, and there are W Hotels. There’s
Walgreens, and there’s The Body Shop.

Hillary Clinton is a classic commodity provider. She caters to the
less-educated, less-pretentious consumer. As Ron Brownstein of The
National Journal pointed out on Wednesday, she won the
non-college-educated voters by 22 points in California, 32 points in
Massachusetts and 54 points in Arkansas. She offers voters no frills,
just commodities: tax credits, federal subsidies and scholarships. She’s
got good programs at good prices.

Barack Obama is an experience provider. He attracts the educated
consumer. In the last Pew Research national survey, he led among people
with college degrees by 22 points. Educated people get all emotional
when they shop and vote. They want an uplifting experience so they can
persuade themselves that they’re not engaging in a grubby
self-interested transaction. They fall for all that zero-carbon
footprint, locally grown, community-enhancing Third Place hype. They
want cultural signifiers that enrich their lives with meaning.

Obama offers to defeat cynicism with hope. Apparently he’s going to turn
politics into a form of sharing. Have you noticed that he’s actually
carried into his rallies by a flock of cherubs while the heavens open up
with the Hallelujah Chorus? I wonder how he does that.

QUESTION: But why would Democratic votes break down so starkly along
educational lines?

DR. RETAIL: The consumer marketplace has been bifurcating for years!
It’s happening because the educated and uneducated lead different sorts
of lives. Educated people are not only growing richer than less-educated
people, but their lifestyles are diverging as well. A generation ago,
educated families and less-educated families looked the same, but now
high school graduates divorce at twice the rate of college graduates.
High school grads are much more likely to have kids out of wedlock. High
school grads are much more likely to be obese. They’re much more likely
to smoke and to die younger.

Their attitudes are different. High school grads are much less
optimistic than college grads. They express less social trust. They feel
less safe in public. They report having fewer friends and lower
aspirations. The less educated speak the dialect of struggle; the more
educated, the dialect of self-fulfillment

Did you hear the message of Clinton’s speech Tuesday night? It’s a
rotten world out there. Regular folks are getting the shaft. They need
someone who’ll fight tougher, work harder and put loyalty over independence.

Then did you see the Hopemeister’s speech? His schtick makes sense if
you’ve got a basic level of security in your life, if you’re looking up,
not down. Meanwhile, Obama’s people are so taken with their messiah that
soon they’ll be selling flowers at airports and arranging mass weddings.
There’s a “Yes We Can” video floating around YouTube in which a bunch of
celebrities like Scarlett Johansson and the guy from the Black Eyed Peas
are singing the words to an Obama speech in escalating states of
righteousness and ecstasy. If that video doesn’t creep out normal
working-class voters, then nothing will.

QUESTION: Your cynicism is really interfering with my vibe. I don’t
think you’re feeling the fierce urgency of now.

DR. RETAIL: Believe me, those of us who bill by the hour completely feel
the fierce urgency of now. As John Edwards would say, this is personal
with me.

QUESTION: So does this mean the Democrats are fundamentally divided?

DR. RETAIL: Why do you political people always think in either/or terms?
No. Safeway and Whole Foods people shop in each other’s stores. They
just feel less at home.

QUESTION: So who’s going to win?

DR. RETAIL: Observe the marketplace. The next states on the primary
calendar have tons of college-educated Obamaphile voters. Maryland is
5th among the 50 states, Virginia is 6th. But later on, we get the
Hillary-friendly states. Ohio is 40th in college education. Pennsylvania
is 32nd.

But it’ll still be tied after all that. The superdelegates will pick the
nominee — the party honchos, the deal-makers, the donors, the machine.
Swinging those people takes a level of cynicism even Dr. Retail can’t
pretend to understand. That’s Tammany Hall. That’s the court at
Versailles under Louis XIV.