In another case of liberal elitism, former Colorado Rep. Pat Schroeder, has determined that I (and all my ilk) are backwards and uneducated. Her source? An AP-Ipsos poll showing that self-identified liberals and Dems read more books than their Republican-Conservative counterparts.
“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.”
Schroeder, who as a Colorado Democrat was once one of Congress’ most liberal House members, was responding to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that found people who consider themselves liberals are more prodigious book readers than conservatives.
She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who “can’t say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion.”
Evidently, that means we are dumb. I will tell you now that I read maybe 5-6 books a year. Most of those are for enjoyment. I read relatively few educational books because I get most of my reading done online. I would, however, point you to the book by former Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) called “National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat.” That was one I read with enthusiasm. I’m sure that was on Pat’s reading list. If not, it should be (yours too).
One interesting finding of the poll was -
Among those who had read at least one book, liberals typically read nine books in the year, with half reading more than that and half less. Conservatives typically read eight, moderates five.
So I guess Schroeder’s reasoning would be as follows: She would conclude that I, Philip, am a moderate since I didn’t read 8 books. And moderates are dumber than both conservatives and libs because they didn’t read as many books as the other two groups. What specious reasoning. And the independents in this nation should be a little perturbed.
I’m not going to go nuts over this. The fallacies and Schroeder’s condescension speak for themselves. Just suffice it to say that the GOP and conservatives, in particular, will always be subject to the scorn of self-obsessed libs who are out to convince the American people that our ideology is intellectually inferior. Nice try, Pat.
steveflesher
Philip
Mel Maguire
Mark Ciavola
Comments
i read maybe 40 books a year. they almost never leave me feeling more liberal, or smarter
Well, damn you criminyjicket. You’re fit to join MoveOn.org by those standards. What are you doing here reading our illiterate blogs?
Oh that is nonsense! Liberals always say idiotic things like that….
“the problem with you conservatives is you have simple answers to complex issues”
I say:
“the problem with idiots like Pat Schroeder (who also served as a referee once between Bill O’Reilly and Al Franken) is that they ignore simple answers that the problems become more complex for conservatives to clean up”
Then when GW Bush comes in and is unable to fix social security and terrorism in a day, they wonder why.
By the way, liberals anger at George Bush is in part the fact that he was READING A BOOK to children while 9/11 was taking place.
Clearly, reading books doesn’t fix national security….
Hilarious, in one breath they use it as a reason to bash the President while simultaneously claiming that we don’t read enough?
Good lord.
hey phil…i’m a moderate..i reckon i skew the poll for us retarts.
Criminy……you can’t be a moderate. You read too many books. Only libs read that many books.
Whatever Schroeder and her lemmings are reading, there’s little evidence they’ve learned more than the slogans on the jackets.
Lord stop saying that Philip. Liberals might read books my Al Franken or by Christopher Hitchens.
I know you’re only kidding but a liberal might come on here and agree with you unknowingly.
LOL. I guess since Congress hasn’t done much though, maybe we can finally ask Pelosi and Boxer to stop readin’ so much and get to work.
I must be really dumb then b/c I *might* read 4 books a year, and rarely are they more than Harry Potter, something by Ludlum or *gasp* a book about horses that can’t possibly stretch my intellect.
Give me a break.
Schroeder said: “It’s pretty hard to write a book saying, ‘No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes’ on every page.”
Hmmm, tell that to Michael Medved, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Michelle Maulkin, Bill O’Reilly and some of the other conservatives that have had best sellers proclaiming the need for tax reform. They found plenty of pages to express their view concerning the overtaxation of the American people.
Finally, Schroeder is insignificant. She is a throw back to the Dems of the 80s – they were insignificant then and she is insignificant now.
Oh, by the way, if what she says is true, it’s because conservatives are out putting into practice the ideals of capitalism/conservatism, instead of reading about it.
Just a quick note of good books.
Everyone, please buy “The Reagan Diaries”. It is an AWESOME book! Fantastic.
Well, if you need to add to your reading list to pad the numbers… Brad Thor, people!
And, he’s got the added advantage of being very good looking. Really.
And does a book count as two if I read it twice?