The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

What Morris spearheaded was a kind of political polling that did not have an overt relationship to politics. The polling firm PSB Insights[*] was enlisted to conduct what they called a “neuropersonality poll” on potential voters. The intent was to create a psychological profile based not on a respondent’s ideology, but on their metaphysical desires. What TV shows did they watch? What did they worry about? Did they like to dance? What day-to-day problems felt beyond their control? The whole idea was to isolate exactly what an individual wanted, regardless of the magnitude or societal import. That was step one. The second step was to disregard the wants and desires of any poll respondent who exhibited a preexisting opinion on who they would vote for. There was no value in considering the thoughts of anyone who was already for them or already against them. The only voters who mattered were undecided swing voters. The result was a new kind of “small ball” platform that confounded Clinton’s cabinet. Instead of structural transformations, Clinton promoted a string of specific measures appealing to secular, middle-class, values-oriented parents who were perched on the partisan fence: support for school uniform policies, restrictions on tobacco, and the insertion of V-chip technology into televisions to stop kids from accessing pornography. Nothing was left to chance. The phrase “Building a Bridge to the 21st Century” became the new campaign motto when it polled at 61 percent, out...