In my column today, I wrote:

But the lesson runs deeper than the impending Sotomayor battle. Conventional wisdom also tells us that the GOP needs to become more inclusive. On this score the conventional wisdom is right, if by “inclusive” you mean getting more people to join the party and vote Republican. But many people mean something else by “inclusive.” They think the GOP needs to become the Pepsi to the Democrats’ Coca-Cola, indistinguishable save for small matters of taste and marketing.

A reader will hear none of it:

Sir,
Huge fan of Liberal Fascism; I took my time reading it and making notes in
the margins. I particularly liked taking it on planes with me, because it
was fun to gauge the reactions of fellow travelers. If they looked at the
cover and frowned, or narrowed their eyes at me, they were most likely
liberal; if they grinned or arched an eyebrow thoughtfully, they were most
likely conservative or at least independent.
Anyway, to business: I take great offense at your analogy about Coke and
Pepsi in your most recent column. To say that Pepsi is “indistinguishable
save for small matters of taste and marketing” from Coca-Cola is…well, I
don’t think that “blasphemy” is a strong enough word to apply here, but I’m
no wordsmith. Coca-Cola is clearly better.
Just a matter of personal taste? I say thee nay, and here is my proof:
imagine drinking a Pepsi, and make a mental list of all the foods to go with
it. Now do the same with Coke. Sure, hamburgers, pizza, popcorn, but move
into non-standard fare and Coke clearly has the edge. You can drink it with
ice cream, sushi, chicken fried steak, nachos…and it’s also the mixer of
choice in bars: “Give me a Jack and Pepsi, double!” is something you’d never
hear.
From a historical standpoint, also, Coke is inextricably intertwined with
American culture. Think of a teenage boy taking his girl out on a date in a
small town in any of the Midwestern states: a slasher flick, a make-out
session on the bench seat of his truck, and walking along the dam barefoot
to catch fireflies, sharing a glass bottle of…Pepsi? Perish the thought.
They’d be passing a Coke back and forth.
The only exception would be in Texas, where the bottle might possibly be Dr.
Pepper, but we Texans are just odd that way.
One last thought: Pepsi went to all that trouble to mentally piggyback onto
the Obama phenomenon by redesigning its logo to look like the ubiquitous “O”
logo from his campaign. Hilariously, though, even the Obama administration
can’t bring itself to hate traditional America so much that it would stray
from the traditional American soft drink:
www.time.com
www.brandfreak.com
www.mediabistro.com
Keep up the good work and again, your book was fantastic. I can’t wait for
your next one.
Respectfully,
[Name withheld]