Back to Walmart

I am in no sense a political expert. But this year, what does that matter? Neither is anyone else. That realization is all it took for me, a few days ago, to head out again to my favorite spot just outside the front door of my neighborhood Walmart. I wanted to find out what the locals were thinking.

If you’re new to this column, it may help you to know that every now and then I try to forget the experts and go instead to the ordinary people—the folks, for instance, who shop at Walmart. If it’s the experts who have messed things up so badly, maybe we commoners have something to contribute to the process of setting things straight again.

Maybe. But maybe not. If this week’s visit to Walmart is any indicator, we’d better keep looking for our savior.

I talked briefly with 31 shoppers. My pitch was simple and, I think, polite and nonthreatening: “Ma’am, may I interrupt you for less than a minute? I write for a national magazine, and I’d like your opinion.” And then I showed them a simple sheet with the faces of Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Cruz. “If the election were held today, which of these would you vote for?” And if they were bold enough to point to one of the four, I pressed a bit further: “Can you tell me why?”

If there was a theme of thoughtfulness running through the comments, respondents seemed to worry most about honesty.

I was surprised that only four of the 31 declined my request. “That’s private information, between me and God,” said Michael F.—and I agreed with him that we should be thankful to live in a country where that is so. “I have a whole week before our primary, don’t I?” said Angela M. “Don’t hurry me.” Monica G. confused me when she said how much she likes most of Trump’s ideas—“But he’s way too pushy, and I just think I won’t vote.”

But here’s what made my knees knock while gathering my little (and statistically meaningless) survey. Out of the 27 folks who pointed to a favorite candidate, only four said they wanted Hillary Clinton and two preferred Ted Cruz. All the remaining 21 split almost evenly between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Yes, the two improbable candidates I referred to in my Jan. 22 column as “crazy uncles” were clearing the table right here in the mountains of North Carolina.

But if the exercise was depressing in numerical results, it was much more so with reference to the respondents’ reasons. Austin B. minced no words. He was for Sanders and forcefully declared, almost as if he’d been rehearsing his answer: “It’s time for the U.S. to join the progressive folks in Europe and the rest of the world with a grown-up civilization.” Irma F. set the tone when she asked offhandedly: “Don’t you think it’s Hillary’s turn?”

If there was a theme of thoughtfulness running through the comments, respondents seemed to worry most about honesty. Matt R. was hedging his bets, for example, when he pointed quickly to Trump but observed, “If he’s telling the truth, maybe he can do something. But if he’s not, well then, he’ll be just like all the others.” Jan S. said she preferred Sanders because “he seems most honest,” but drew a blank when I asked for an example or two of what she meant.

Halfway through the exercise, I was struck with how shallow and frivolous this exercise really was. That’s when Tim Paschall, Walmart’s assistant manager for the day, came out and told me I’d have to move on. Divisive activities like mine annoyed their shoppers, he said, and one woman had said she wouldn’t come back if I was allowed to “accost” people the way I was. So just to keep the record straight, bear in mind that Walmart shoppers don’t carry the whole blame for the collapse of our culture. Indeed, the last 16 responses came from folks at Aldi grocery store and Lowe’s home improvement center.

And if your heart is heavy over a presidential race that seems consumed with thin process and knows so little of substance, keep this in mind: The common folk of society may have no more extensive a claim on wisdom and virtue than the experts do.

Email jbelz@wng.org

Listen to Joel Belz’s commentary on The World and Everything in It.