"But of all the backward ass campaign cliches to be visited upon the American public, none is more pernicious than 'beer track/wine track.'"

"What an utter abuse of metaphor. Look, I'm a liberal who lives in Manhattan. In my fridge-right now---you can find a six of Red Hook. I love beer, and instantly distrust anyone who doesn't. In fact, in college, I refused to date any girl who didn't drink beer. None of that Midori Melon and a salad bullshit for me; Nothing says sexy like a Sam Adams and chicken wings. I don't think I have a single friend (who isn't a recovering alcoholic) who doesn't like beer. Most of them drink wine too, but the official drink of young Manhattan liberals is beer, no question. Moreover, I detect a hint of racism here. This false analogy leaves no place for the many tribes of black voters--'The Hennessey Track,' 'The Curvosier [sic] Track,' 'The MGD Track.' Once again the media conspires to keep black folks out...."

Wrote Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2008 (in The Atlantic). 

I ended up there after reading this new article at Politico, "Trump’s beer track advantage over Ron DeSantis":

Polls show Trump dominating his likely primary competitor among GOP voters in the so-called “beer track” — a shorthand for the cultural and socioeconomic characteristics of the bloc of voters with lower incomes and levels of educational attainment. While DeSantis is still the preferred candidate of high-income voters and those with college degrees, he is showing signs of bleeding there, too. In recent weeks, Trump’s numbers have been rising among all Republicans, including with GOP voters most skeptical of his candidacy in the so-called “wine track.” 

I hate this metonymy, identifying people using a stereotype about what those of their class might be drinking. It's somebody's idea of snazziness — drinking. But plenty of people object to drinking or have had problems with drinking. It doesn't help anyone to make wine the marker of higher education and income. As Coates indicates, there are some more elite beers, and there are also some very low level wines. Why, I remember when we used to call drunks on the street "winos." I couldn't find a corresponding word for a beer drunk. I googled "beero," only to learn it's used as a portmanteau for "beer" and "hero" (as in "You're my beero" aimed at someone who brought the beer).

***

Now, what about the dreary question of whether DeSantis can win the nomination? Sorry, I have given up. Every once in a while I see — out of the corner of my eye — something like this:

And I just think, yeah, the die is cast. I don't have to do what I did in 2004, 2007-2008, 2011-2012, 2015-2016, and 2019-2020. That was a lot of blogging in the run-up to the presidential nominations. It doesn't make any sense to follow the story this time. It was so ridiculous in 2020 that we ended up with a choice between Biden and Trump, but it's mind-blowing that we're going to have to do that again — and without the mystery that prevailed in the year before the nominations last time. During that time period, we mostly thought those 2 couldn't possibly be the ones. And now 4 years later — and with very old men! — we're pretty much stuck with the idea that we are fated to live through Biden vs. Trump all over again. 

It's enough to drive us to wine and beer, but please, hang on to your mental clarity. It might be good for paying attention to things other than the tragedy that is the American electoral process.