{"id":8016,"date":"2006-07-24T13:21:01","date_gmt":"2006-07-24T17:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8016.html"},"modified":"2006-07-24T13:21:01","modified_gmt":"2006-07-24T17:21:01","slug":"the-applebees-america-quiz-and-why-im-apparently-a-republican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-applebees-america-quiz-and-why-im-apparently-a-republican\/","title":{"rendered":"The Applebee’s America Quiz — and why I’m apparently a Republican"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a new book coming out called “Applebee’s America<\/a>,” which purports to offer some helpful insights into the political landscape. But if the quiz the authors are using is any indication, I’m a little concerned about the book’s reliability.<\/p>\n

In this era of technology, terror, and massive social change, it takes a deft touch to connect with Americans. Applebee’s America cracs [sic<\/i>] the twenty-first century code for political, business, and religious leaders struggling to keep pace with the times.<\/p>\n

A unique team of authors — Douglas B. Sosnik, a strategist in the Clinton White House; Matthew J. Dowd, a strategist for President Bush’s two campaigns; and award-winning political journalist Ron Fournier — took their exclusive insiders’ knowledge far outside Washington beltway in search of keys to winning leadership.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OK, sounds vaguely interesting. Apparently, the disparate group of authors came up with their own way of looking at the political landscape and came up with some new buzzwords, including a “Gut Values Connection.”<\/p>\n

Moreover, the three writers argue that “the best way to judge whether you belong to the Red Tribe (Republican), Blue Tribe (Democrat) or Tipping Tribe (swing voter) is to understand your lifestyle choices.” The “blue state”\/”red state” dynamic doesn’t work because, in many states, the political minority is nearly half the state. It’s more accurate to look at “tribes” that ignore state lines. Fair enough.<\/p>\n

The problem comes when they offer you a quiz<\/a> to help you determine which “tribe” you’re a part of.
\n
\nSosnik, Dowd, and Fournier believe Americans’ “political impulses are strongly influenced” by those around us. To help us understand the “lifestyle choices” the shape our political choices, they offer a 12-question quiz. Here’s one gem:<\/p>\n

Which special event would you be more inclined to attend?<\/p>\n

* Monster Truck Show
\n* Pro Wrestling Match<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are my choices? What if I don’t care for either? Here’s another:<\/p>\n

You’re at a cocktail party, and the only choices are gin, bourbon, scotch and vodka. Which liquor do you choose?<\/p>\n

* Bourbon or Scotch
\n* Gin or vodka<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In all, I scored an 11, which put me well into the “Red Tribe” category (the maximum score was 12). This, despite being an unapologetic Democrat in one of the bluest states in the country.<\/p>\n

Ryan Lizza, who scored an eight, said<\/a> the quiz “seems to be a laughably poor demonstration of the supposed power of this new political voodoo.” Feel free to take the test yourself<\/a> and let me know what you think, but at this point, I’m not impressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a new book coming out called “Applebee’s America,” which purports to offer some helpful insights into the political landscape. But if the quiz the authors are using is any indication, I’m a little concerned about the book’s reliability. In this era of technology, terror, and massive social change, it takes a deft touch to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}