More Liberal Obfuscation

The liberal media is at it again. The meme of "liberals are smarter than conservatives" has been a constant for some time, especially since the election of George W. Bush, whom liberals like to portray as an idiot. Now the Associated Press has decided to try this one more time, running a story that claims liberals read more than conservatives because they are "want the hole picture".

The story quotes the president of the American Association of Publishers on the topic, and her words are unkind at best and insulting at worst to conservatives.

The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes,'" Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. "It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page."

Of course, Schroeder's comments should be taken with a large grain of salt- she used to be, as even the AP has to admit, "one of Congress' most liberal members" during her time as a democratic Representative from Colorado. The White House was quick to fire off an amused response, saying that Schroeder confused "quantity with quality". And the AP also admits that Karl Rove is known as a prodigious reader.

As a voracious reader myself, I have to laugh a the entire "news story". Liberals may indeed read more than conservatives. However, just because one person reads more bulk than another carries absolutely no significance as to intelligence, wisdom or any other meaningful markers of personality. I have read Kipling, Shakespeare, the Bible, a great deal of literary fiction, and a fair amount of science fiction from the Golden Age. However, the only books I have read in the past year are the Harry Potter books and a few old favorites by Douglas Reeman, CS Forester, Dick Francis and Ngaio Marsh. Although I have re-read some of the classics, such as Mahan's Influence of Sea Power Upon History and Plato's Republic (in translation- my Greek is nonexistent).

My wife on the other hand has confined her reading to several Japanese novels by Miyabe Miyuki (宮部みゆき). Does this mean she is less intelligent? Of course not. The volume of one's reading is immaterial to one's intelligence.

One can also make the argument that conservatives read less because thy have actual jobs and families to occupy their attention, while liberals tend to be children of privilege (meaning no nine-to-five job to keep them busy) and less inclined to have children (which may come back to haunt them one day at the ballot box).

However, in the main this is merely more evidence that the Left has become the party of elitism and privilege, while the conservatives (should be) the party of normal people. If only the black vote could figure this out, Democrats might actually have to enunciate a real policy as opposed to tired old bromides like this one.