Political campaigns have a nasty tendency to profile voters. Live in a rural coal town serviced by a Walmart, and you’re a Republican. If it’s a woodsy suburb with a Target megastore, you’re a Democrat.
But now pollster John Zogby, who long ago found innovative ways to look at voter and consumer groups beyond old labels and stereotypes, has come up with a new filter that is already being adopted by companies and campaigns eager to expand their message.
He calls it “tribal analytics,” and in a new book details the differences between American tribes and areas where they make “tribal border crossings” that can be valuable for politicians.
In We Are Many, We Are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America, Zogby says that America is no longer divided along racial, religious or ethnic lines, but instead can be grouped based on their values attributes.
Consider former President Bill Clinton, impeached for lying about having sex in the Oval Office with an intern, but also a Bible-quoting Southern churchgoer. Zogby says Clinton shows how hard it is to compartmentalize people, and he would make the ex-president a crossover between two of his new categories, “Happy Hedonist” and “God Squad.”
Quoting Dick Morris, Zogby tells the Washington Examiner that the one-time Clinton pollster “once wrote about ‘Saturday night Bill, and Sunday morning Bill.’ So ‘Happy Hedonists’ are Saturday night Bill, and ‘God Squad’ are Sunday morning Bill. It’s so vital that we not pigeonhole people into narrow little egg cartons, narrow little sections. They are much more multi-dimensional.”
His book includes 11 different categories and was researched over several years with the help of his sons, also in the analytics business. What was new was instead of just asking polling questions, he allowed some 8,000 to pick which tribes they think they affiliate with and what drives their membership.
For each of the 11 groups, Zogby details their politics, habits, world outlook and even favored places to shop that will help campaigns craft a message that has crossover appeal.
“You shouldn’t always go for the easier slot and assume, for example, ‘This is what blacks think,'” says Zogby.
“It is no longer about where people are born or where they live. It is more about who they are, how they see themselves, and with whom they choose to identify,” he writes in his book.
For Zogby, who helps write the weekly Obama report card for the online Washington Secrets, the book is his latest bid to help campaigns and companies figure out what America is.
“Personally, I like being a thought leader. It’s something I’ve aspired to for almost two decades,” he says. “I always knew that you could only carry accuracy and polling so far. I wanted to be the guy who made sense out of the numbers and defined who we are because I think there’s a hunger for that.
“But, also I want to enable to fellow professionals to look at the right things.”
Division in Clinton camp over assault weapon ban
There is a crack in Team Clinton’s call for a new “assault weapons ban,” with the Democratic candidate’s top emissary to the outdoors community saying that no gun should be banned.
California Rep. Mike Thompson, a long-time hunter who has called for “common-sense” restrictions like expanded background checks, said a ban like Clinton has demanded isn’t worth the fight, and could lead to the end of hunting.
Speaking as Clinton’s surrogate at a conference hosted by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership last week, Thompson said that “she has gone further than I have” on the issue to revive her husband’s 1994 ban. Since it expired, the AR-15 platform has become America’s most popular rifle.
“There are over 10 million of them in civilian hands in United States of America. You’re not getting that toothpaste back in the bottle,” he said. “And personally, I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze. I would rather just say if you pass a background check, you can buy your gun, notwithstanding the type of gun.”
Thompson, however, warned gun owners against saying no to any new controls, suggesting that the larger number of non-gun owners could eventually win in a polarized battle.
Following Obama lead, more Americans taking summer vacation
More and more Americans are following the first family’s lead with it comes to taking a summer vacation.
Rasmussen Reports has found that 55 percent of the country plans a summer break, finally showing some proof that the recession-weary public has pocketed enough cash to rent a beach house or go camping.
Obama has informed officials in Martha’s Vineyard that he is also planning his usual Massachusetts vacation. He is expected to spend three weeks of August in his last summer vacay of his presidency. The first family also plans to spend Christmas in Hawaii, and the first lady and her two daughters just returned from a trip to Spain and Morocco.
Two years ago, just 42 percent said they had taken a summer vacation, said Rasmussen. But last year, that number increased to 55 percent, the same as this year.
The polling outfit said that men more than women, those under 40 years old and married parents with children are most likely to hit the beach this summer.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
