Because most philosophies that frown on reproduction don't survive.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The Politics of Drinking

The Campaign Stops blog had a discussion of "nanotargeting" in the 2012 election, zeroing in on all sorts of preference differences between those who lean Democrat and those who lean Republican in order to target advertising dollars more precisely. Of course, I can't resist the breakdown of alcohol preferences.
It turns out that I'm a slightly center-right drinker. (None of my favorite beers place, so I had to pick via hard liquors.) Gin is a distinctly left of center drink, with 45% of adherents leaning Democratic and 33% leaning Republican. Scotch is centrist 40% of Scotch drinkers leaning left and 38% leaning right. However, whiskey in general is preferred by 41% of those on the right and only 36% of those on the left, Bourbon leans right by 42% to 36%, and Rye trends GOP by 42% to 32%.

Cognac is the most Leftist drink while, to the shame of conservatives everywhere, the most conservative is Amstel Light.

5 comments:

bearing said...

I think it's kind of nice that we can all agree on Guinness.

On Bud Light, too. Yeesh.

Big Tex said...

With beer, we only see those with nationwide availability. The good stuff (at least that which does not traverse the Atlantic) is highly localized, so I would venture to say that the good stuff does not show up on the list. However, the hard liquors are not separated by brand. Scotch is scotch, and not Dewars, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, etc... I would like to see this chart reworked to group beer styles: light lager, stout, IPA, pale ale, lambic, blah blah blah blah.

I am heartened to see that those darn libruls are the predominant Natty Light drinkers.

Jennifer Fitz said...

I'm dead center - Scotch and Guiness. I knew it. I knew it.

Banshee said...

Well, whiskey is the water of life, so of course you have to have whiskey or Scotch around. Guinness is similar, because it's good for you. And there's nothing wrong with a good sipping bourbon.

But the categories are weird, to say the least, and there's a lot of important American drinks left out. Margaritas. Jaegermeister. (And jello shots, alas. You could argue they're the great American drink, these days.)

Abby said...

Oh man, it's going to be hard to break it to my boyfriend that I've found out I'm a liberal. (vodka) Or even worse, that he is too! (scotch and gin)

What a fun graph, thanks for sharing.