The Cheap Stuff

In Belfair we have two grocery stores. The QFC was here first and then a Safeway opened. The Safeway appeared to be much larger than the QFC, until the QFC completely remodeled last year. The difference couldn't be more striking.

The QFC is now the most opulent of grocery stores, an object lesson for grocers who want to upgrade, and attracts the more prosperous element of shoppers. The poor people flock to the Safeway, in spite of the fact that the prices are often higher in the Safeway. The Safeway is now starting an expansion and upgrade, but they will always labor under the need to appear cheaper than the QFC.

And that's the trap the Republican Party is in today. They built a brand in which the ugliness of bigotry lay hidden in the fact that their voters could trust them to do the wrong thing. Those are their core voters, the 20% of us keeping the Repubs on life support, and they won't accept anything more. A move by a Republican towards rationality, compassion, or fairness, is a deal breaker for their remaining voters.

They are, in short, hoist on their own petard.