“It has to do with Douglas County Republicans being among the most moderate in all the free world,” Hawver said. “It’s a shorthand characterization that alludes to the grown-up-now hippies of the 1980s and, to some extent, the 1970s. But not the 1960s  you notice I didn’t call them ‘love bead’ Republicans.”

Birkenstocks, of course, are the sensible sandals often favored by those of the hippy persuasion.