Do you go out for Indian food?

Political scientist Lynn Vavreck passes along that your dining habits can serve as a clue to which Democratic Party presidential aspirants might thrill you -- and most certainly whether you ever viewed Donald Trump with more than a passing disdain.

The more likely that people were to experience other cultures probably unfamiliar to them — through travel or food — the more likely they were to vote for Mr. Obama [in 2008], even controlling for things like income, education, personality, racial attitudes and city living.

This orientation toward the world also helped differentiate people who supported Donald J. Trump from those who supported any of the 16 other candidates in the Republican primary in 2016. Voters who had been to Europe, Australia, Canada or Mexico or had eaten at an Indian restaurant were less likely to choose Mr. Trump by 10 to 12 percentage points beyond the differences explained by other factors like the ones mentioned above.

... Of course, it’s not that eating Indian food leads a person to support one Democratic candidate over another — that’s silly. (And there are voters for whom Indian food is the taste of home.) But a voter’s orientation toward the world is related to candidate choice, and it turns out that eating in restaurants that celebrate less familiar cultures is one way to measure where people think they are more connected: to those around them locally or to people farther afield.

Which Democrats will prevail this primary season — the cosmopolitans or the local-focused? Something to consider the next time you eat out.

This bit of polling wisdom doesn't tell us the political leanings of people like so many around here who get their Indian food via DoorDash or other delivery options. Is this perhaps another bit to tech disruption, this time skewing political analytics?...It's hard to feel lighthearted on the eve of the Democratic primary going serious in the Iowa caucuses while watching GOPer Senators betray the country and Constitution they took an oath to uphold. Nothing to do but keep working for a better country in whatever arenas, via whatever means we have. We never know where friction will save a life or a spark may catch.