Being the demographic

There was once a time when I thought I was kind of out of the mainstream--like, I wouldn't have picked me for the average American of my age. This was partly because I was a nerd and didn't think I qualified, but also because, I now realize, it was what everyone else my age was thinking. The current (pre)election may/may not be saving/destroying the democratic party/country, but it has certainly been an eye-opener for me about the strange determinism of demographics.

It's analogous, I guess, to how when you're finally ready to have a kid and give her that oddball name you've been saving for years, everyone else picks the same one--while all the other demographics are going, "Really, Dakota? Madison?" (Coming up: Waverley and Keyon.)

I first became aware of my own demographic identity sometime around Iowa, when I surprised myself by feeling a lot of solidarity with Hillary Clinton (pre-tears, I swear). Turns out this is because I'm a white educated woman with post-feminist guilt, who feels maybe a little weird about not voting for the first serious woman candidate for president. To learn more about my spontaneous, personal, idiosyncratic take on this you could read (for example) this article.

If you think too much about what this says about electoral politics or democracy in general, you will be depressed (no matter what your demographic, I suspect). Jeff recently stumbled upon a much more fun way to marvel at the phenomenon: a correlation between food choices and political orientation. It's way more right-on, and more quirky, than I could have imagined. Try it out: here's Clinton, here's McCain, here's Obama.

If you're wondering, our household politics are summarized pretty well by the fact that when we ran out of olive oil this week, it was a minor emergency--but we got along perfectly well on butter for a few days. Actually, we get along on quite a lot of butter all the time. We proselytize for butter. But perhaps that's because olive oil doesn't need proselytizing? Interpret at will!