David Brooks on what we call Silicon Valley Republicans out here:
The Republican moderates come from Landsí End and Eddie Bauer-rich tipping zones. The people in the office parks in these places may not be zillionaires, but they run the meeting planning firms that help HR executives facilitate sales force enrichment retreats.
They are looking for orderly places to raise their children. They are what you might call antiparty empiricists. They distrust partisans and canít imagine why anyone would be sick enough to base an identity on a political organization. They donít expect much from government but a few competently delivered services, and they donít like public officials who unnerve them.
The Republicans used to do well in these areas, but now itís as if they are purposely trying to antagonize the married moms at the pseudo-New Urbanist outdoor cafes. The deficits alarm them. Tom DeLay was a perfectly designed Northeastern alienation machine. As insular Democrats know little about what life is like in flyover country, so insular Republicans know little about how people think in the suburban Northeast, where blue New York Times delivery bags dot the driveways each morn.
The big issue is Iraq, but the core problem with suburban voters is not the decision to go to war; itís the White Houseís reaction to the mess afterward. As Robert Lang, the superlative suburban specialist at Virginia Tech, notes, when people mess up a project in an office park, there are consequences. But Donald Rumsfeld never gets fired. Jerry Bremer and Tommy Franks get medals.
This is not how engineers and empirically minded managers behave. The people in these offices manage information for a living, and when they see Republicans denying obvious trends, or shutting out relevant data, they say to themselves, ìThose people are not like me.î
