Having seen this, an exploration of the political leanings and voter turnout of divergent beer drinkers in America, led to a few observations - aside from the obvious need to share!
Observation number one: Since nearly every beer listed qualifies as a macro-brewed American Pale Lager, I am inclined to presume that macro-brewed-pale-lager-drinking-Americans tend to have traditional dichotomous (Liberal-Republican) political stripes and conceive of political action in similarly reductionist ways (to vote or not to vote). I know, it is more likely that those running the poll think in this way, or presume that such market research - which seems to be its purpose - is more crucial to the big guys.
Correlation may not imply causality, but if we could all just open up to alternative possibilities in lifestyle and choice, perhaps we would also open in ways that could help us reconceptualize our entire socio-political ontologies.
I suppose I am here making the hypothesis that those drinking New Belgium Beers in the United States or Beau's in Canada - and perhaps just local and/or craft beer in general might not be well represented by such a survey? Is it my own bias, or would those of a more nuanced consumption also have a more nuanced politics that these market researchers would find difficult to quantify in these binary terms?
The lesson taken from this, according to the accompanying article, seems to be for brewers to stay politically neutral. However, there is a specific politics not only to the business model of the smaller craft brewing scene, but to the partisan and legislative practices that hinder or advance the craft brewing phenomenon. Part of my point is that businesses are inherently political and both consumers and entrepreneurs of various sizes and philosophies exemplify different ideologies. Maybe embracing those isn't such a bad thing, indeed simply existence in such an economy sides with, and against, certain political formulations. Standing aside is a politics too: the politics of the status quo, and certainly many large brewers depend on the way things are, but does this not differ for the smaller craft brewer - especially those with environmental leanings?
Observation number two: perhaps my presumptions are either wrong or limited anyway since some of the best (and by best, I mean less bad) beers on this list seem to be consumed by Republican supporters who vote. I am not sure what this does to my leftist and ale/craft-loving worldview, but I am open to suggestions as to what I should drink to drown my sadness at this realization.
Frankly I'm amazed that the light beers don't line up along the bottom.
ReplyDeleteInitially I was tempted to posit something about "people who care, regardless of how they care or why they care, care about everything, not just beer or voting". However, that was before I saw the chart and saw the locations of Molson, Miller Lite, Coors Lite, etc. The only one that makes sense to me is Corona.