The United States of Wal-Mart

"One of the things I talk about in the book is the fact that Wal-Mart transcends national polarization of left/right, red state/blue state. You're seeing a lot of suburban and exurban communities don't want Wal-Mart.

But they're not fighting Wal-Mart by turning it into a referendum on, "Is Wal-Mart good for America?" They're sticking to the nuts and bolts of a specific local proposal. They're analyzing Wal-Mart's particular environmental impact statement, analyzing traffic studies. They're fighting it on the nitty-gritty. If in the process they decide they don't like Wal-Mart, they're kind of sucking it up. They're making a politically mature decision to not let that color local politics -- where it's not terribly relevant."