Elections Blog

In case you missed my earlier post on Tobacco and the Flat Tax, I’m new to Independent Sources. I go by Moon and I host Moonage Webdream.

If Starbucks is featured at the 2006 DNC, Kerry is once again their candidate of choice for 2008.  If it’s Dunkin Donuts, Hillary is in for 2008. 

How do I know this?

Here’s the teaser

In addition to winning by four percentage points overall, Starbucks is dominant among under-50 consumers, leading by 41% to 28% among 18-to-29 year-olds and 37% to 30% among 30-to-49 year-olds. Dunkin’ Donuts, meanwhile, edges Starbucks among 50-to-64 year-olds, leading by a slim, 32% to 31% margin, and a wider 29% to 23% margin among seniors…….

The “Starbucks Divide”-this division among age groups, coupled with Starbucks two-to-one dominance among liberals and progressives (43% to 23% among liberals; 41% to 19% among progressives)-provides a clear illustration of current social and political fault-lines.

To make this a little simpler, I’ve put it in everybody’s favorite form, and especially mine, the table:

Now, the significant differences between Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are price and caffeine content.  I see a lot of parallels to life here in this otherwise meaningless survey.  When you’re young, you like to make social statements, even if you have to pay outrageous amounts of money you barely have.  Being in a Starbucks on a regular basis is nothing but a social statement, as you can have the same load of caffeine at any truck stop.  As you get older, and other things become important, making that social statement becomes very irrelevant.  At that point, you’re pretty much just addicted to the things you “need”.  If it tastes good and it’s cheap, that’s what you’ll more often than not go for.  Gender wise, I don’t think it’s much of a surprise here.  Women like style, men like function.  Politically, look at the demographics.  40-24 urban, 25-35 rural.  Sound familiar?  I really wish they had broken this down to state level, I love blue-red comparisons.  Again, I think this boils down to the fact urban folks like style and image, rural folks like practicality.  Now, I’ve lived in Washington DC, and now live in VERY rural Kentucky.  I drink Maxwell House.  I’m fairly moderate politically (by today’s standards).  It would only figure my demographic (moderate), would not even be tabulated.  The polarization of the US is a media thing.  They hate Maxwell House-drinking 40-something average-white-male non-neo-con-Republicans who don’t see a political scandal around every corner.  And this survey just proves it.  Let’s take another look at it, shall we?

In many cases, the non-surveyed brands outnumbered at least one of the surveyed brands.  Now, if they are going to tell us that a person drinking Starbucks is most likely an urban liberal, what are all those folks in the other demographics that drink the non-surveyed brands like me?  Could they be moderates?

Now, the political ramifications of this are pretty obvious to me.  As stated above, if Starbucks is featured at the 2006 DNC, Kerry is their candidate of choice for 2008.  If it’s Dunkin Donuts, Hillary is in for 2008.  You can draw your own conclusions if you want.

Disclaimer, although living in a very rural area, we have access to Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and my personal favorite which is a privately owned coffee house that features none of the above named brands.  I really don’t know what they serve, I just go there to be seen.

Update: Another angle at this topic from Ace of Spades.

technorati: 2008 election Democrats

tags: 2008 election, democrats