You Are What You Eat

Over on Slate John Dickerson is considering a strange phenomenon. Voters prefer Democrats and Democratic policies to Republicans and Republican policies. But a majority are planning to vote for Republicans anyhow. Groping for an explanation Dickerson comes up with this analogy:

You're a long-haul trucker on the highway, and you're hungry. You wish you'd eaten a good healthy meal, but those are time-consuming and expensive. You see a choice at the next exit: McDonald's or Burger King. You're not thrilled about either, but in general you prefer McDonald's to Burger King and, if asked, you'd probably agree that you like every comparable menu item (fries, burger, drink, Happy Meal toy) better at McDonald's than at Burger King. But you've eaten at McDonald's for eight straight days. So, you go to Burger King.

That’s not bad. But Obama’s only been in office for a year and half. So I think we need to modify it a bit to really capture the national moment:

You're a long-haul trucker on the highway, and you're hungry. You wish you'd eaten a good healthy meal, but those are time-consuming and expensive. You see a choice at the next exit: McDonald's or Burger King.

You used to eat at this Burger King all the time. For year after year you had nothing but Burger King. It was terrible. It didn’t taste good. It wasn’t good for you. The service is terrible. But they have a big flag out front and they keep their prices low. As it turns out, the owner was philosophically opposed to meddling “food safety regulations”. The last time you ate there you got E. Coli and it nearly killed you. “That’s it!” you swore. No more Burger King for you.

You were pretty hopeful that McDonald’s would be better. And it is. You suppose. Can’t complain really. The food is better and the staff seems to be trying really hard. The problems is you’ve still got that stomach infection from the E. Coli you got at Burger King. All this gastrointestinal pain and massive diarrhea is kind of ruining your dining experience (not to mention all the long-haul trucking). Where did you get this stomach bug again? You forgot. But McDonald’s just isn’t quite what you hoped it would be.

Oh, look. Burger King got an even bigger flag!