It makes perfect sense to me that a new study shows that liberals read more than conservatives. Simply, liberals want to learn more and have a larger intellectual appetite. It isn't that the left is necessarily smarter, but their minds are much more open than the restriction of thought that leaders in the conservative world like to maintain.
The first person that comes to mind is Frank Luntz, who has come up with many alliterations and catch-phrases for the Republican party (as well as some Democrats). Simplification is their key asset to make sure their flock stays in line with ideological priorities. Keeping things "black and white" makes things easier for them, even though the world is full of shades of gray.
From the AP:
"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."
Conservatives are quick to disagree of course. Mary Matalin was interviewed for this article as well and put in her two cents. First she says that Schroeder shouldn't interject her opinion....and that conservatives are getting more of their reading material online. Well Mary, I hate to tell you, but online readership, especially on the blogs is heavily liberal. In fact, the largest Democratic blog gets more traffic than the top 50 sites in the conservative blogosphere. In addition to that, blogs on the left are much less top-heavy.
Lets face it, liberals like to read more. We are more interested in finding out the nuances of the gray shades than simply saying it is "us vs. them" all the time. The world isn't that simple. The difference is that liberals want to learn about it and conservatives want to make it easy so they don't have to think.
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