Huffington Magazine Issue 12-13 | Page 75

HUFFINGTON 09.09.12 FOOD FIGHT! drink French wine by the glass or go to a tapas bar I can’t afford,” said Kris Lefler, 31, at a recent Romney rally in High Point, N.C. “Looking like a caveman while eating barbecue isn’t acceptable either,” she said. CARNAL INSTINCTS That potential voters are possessed of such opinions is not new, and food has long been incorporated into the signaling of American politics. As far back as the 18th century, Southern politicians threw rowdy election barbecues to “treat” voters to free rum, whisky and roasted pig in order to secure their support, according to Robert F. Moss, a food writer and author of the book Barbecue: The History of an American Institution. At the all-day outdoor parties, attended by hundreds or thousands traveling on horseback, candidates jumped on literal tree stumps to give speeches. During the mid-19th century, politicians such as Andrew Jackson used the events to curry favor with rural, uneducated farmers recently awarded suffrage. Today, barbecue joints still sit alongside diners and ice cream parlors on the shrine of populist “The sheer meatiness of a BBQ feast can help create the image of someone who doesn’t mind getting their hands dirty or blanch at the sight of blood.” eateries that politicians worship. If the 24-hour diner symbolizes working class prosperity and industriousness, the red meat of barbecue roars with carnal instinct. Both Obama and Lyndon B. Johnson have used military barbecues to present themselves as gutsy and approachable commanders and chiefs in times of war, according to Andrew Warnes, a reader in American Studies at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. “The sheer meatiness of a barbecue feast can help create the image of someone who doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty or blanch at the sight of