Posted by
Jason on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 1:04:22 PM
Disclaimer: I'm just an average guy...
A new study is out that states that about 22% of Liberals did not read any book last year compared to 34% of conservatives... GASP! While I believe the true revelation of the poll is that conservatives are more honest, let's just take those numbers at face value.
Pat Schroeder (D-CO) sure does. She's the president of the American Association of Publishers, but is probably better known as one of the most liberal members of the House of Representatives, where she served from 1973-1996.
She was quick to interpret the poll saying, "The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans... It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes,' on every page." What she doesn't tell you is that this study was not referring only to books on public policy... it was ANY book. So apparently Liberals reading "Harry Potter" are way more policy savvy than those pesky "just give me a slogan" Conservatives. Hogwarts School of Public Policy, I guess.
So let's compare political authors, then... which authors do you see on the New York Times best sellers list? Ann Coulter or Laura Flanders? Sean Hannity or Al Franken? Newt Gingrich or... well, you get the point.
Schroeder went on to observe that Liberals "can't say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion." And while it's refreshing to hear a Liberal admit that they're boring and long winded, again her arguments are misguided. It just takes Liberals longer issues because they have to explain away all the various stances they've held on that issue. Don't believe me? Just listen to Hilary Clinton or John Kerry talk about their "position" on the War in Iraq from 2002 until now... it's quite humorous.
Conservatives, explaining their convictions using common sense, tend to be much more efficient. Though last time I checked, they still use paragraphs.