Dance On The Grave Of Retail Politics

The Network State Is Already Here

Two days ago, the first votes were cast in the Republican primary – the Iowa caucus. Going into it, media (independent and legacy) had nonstop speculation about “retail politics”. Retail politics means meeting people in real life, holding events, speaking one on one, and other things that are completely agnostic to policy or the ability to govern. 

Vivek might be underrated, since he’s done so many events and really spoke to people. He visited every single county! Trump might be overrated, since he’s barely campaigned at all in person. After all, that’s what democracy is about, isn’t it?

The boomers’ dreams were shattered yesterday, when it turns out retail politics didn’t matter at all. The polls were basically spot on, Trump dominated, Vivek dropped out and endorsed him.

I for one cheer the death of retail politics. Does it do anything to help voters make a better choice? Do the in person events actually lead to voters being more informed than televised town halls, news articles, or tweets? Certainly, most of those options are also filled with politics-as-entertainment, but I’ve never heard anyone mourn fewer people watching TV to the same degree as they mourn the exact same thing, but in person. In reality, the only thing that separates ‘retail politics’ and cable TV is trading production value for private jet flights. It’s wasteful and contributes nothing. 

“But Brian, what about the regional differences?” Whatever the regional differences look like, the odds are they’re downstream of these two charts.

Education and age are both signals of network, not geography. The types of people you know, media you consume, and jobs you have are highly stratified by both factors. The most immediately striking number is Vivek: performing five times better with the youngest age group than the oldest. Is that because the young people are the ones turning out to his campaign events? Or because he’s been on every podcast imaginable? The differentials with Trump and DeSantis are also striking. 

The difference in media consumption is determinative both within and between parties. As Richard Hanania famously argued, this not only determines who votes for who, but the entire organizational structure of left and right. “Conservative media perfecting the “infotainment” genre of news commentary brought people into politics that a generation earlier would’ve paid more attention to professional wrestling or monster truck rallies instead. Liberalism has captured a combination of an overeducated class with more desire for status than intellectual curiosity along with mentally ill individuals who in the 1990s might have joined some apolitical subculture instead of becoming passionate about race and gender issues.”

The Network State Already Rules Us

What does Florida, North Dakota, and Arizona have in common?

1. They reopened early during Covid.
2. They’re kinda conservative.

3. Their (then) governors and legislators were aligned with a right that was much more skeptical of executive power. 

The (elite) network of new conservative thought translated into geographical differences in policy. Note that the policies within the geographical triangle between them varied wildly. Covid showed that your states geographical movement was downstream of its politics.

Why do people think we don’t live in the network state? There are plenty of good reasons. The clearest is that differences between countries are far greater than between US states. There are still significant cultural and political differences between America and China for example. New network states don’t really exist, even if existing states are governed in an increasingly networked fashion. And even in America, the differences in network politics still ultimately have to go through the geographic electoral system.

Despite all this, the thing that motivates people to do both great and ordinary things is the network. The network drives votes. The network recruits new hires. The network inspires passions. It is root access, today. Youtube and even cable TV matters far more than the guy speaking down the street. And despite their flaws, that’s something to celebrate.