Reporters love the beer test because it’s a way of making elections about something other than politics. It’s also a great way to make elections about us. No crowd of millions ever banged down the door of Time magazine and demanded, “We want a president who’s a good beer companion.” No, that idea came from a beer company, and reporters just happened to like it. It appealed to our caricatured idea of voters as brainless goons who can be trained to pick politicians using the same marketing techniques we use to sell soda or breakfast cereals. With tests like this, we never had to write about the
...more
