An AP-Ipsos poll found that liberals read more than conservatives:
The AP-Ipsos poll found 22 percent of liberals and moderates said they had not read a book within the past year, compared with 34 percent of conservatives.
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.
By slightly wider margins, Democrats tended to read more books than Republicans and independents. There were no differences by political party in the percentage of those who said they had not read at least one book.
The head of a book publishing industry trade organization offered one explanation:
“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.”
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.”
Needless to say, Schroeder is a liberal Democrat. Naturally the Republicans have a different take:
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Schroeder was “confusing volume with quality” with her remarks.
“Obfuscation usually requires a lot more words than if you simply focus on fundamental principles, so I’m not at all surprised by the loquaciousness of liberals,” he said.
Considering that the Republicans are experts at obfuscation, and depend upon it to sell their policies, this explanation does not hold up very well.
As we see above, there are some conservatives who prefer to escape into a book at times such as when the country is under attack.
There was a time when conservatives would study books, but such intellectuals, and basically everyone with a brain, have been thrown out of the modern conservative movement. There is a word for conservatives who begin to both read and understand books–liberals.
A movement whose defining philosophy has become authoritarianism and blind support for their leaders requires followers who have as little knowledge as possible. It is not possible to understand history or international relations and accept the neoconservative foreign policy as anything other than a recipe for national disaster. It is not possible to study philosophy or ethics and not be appalled by the conduct of the Bush administration. If conservatives read economics they might figure out that the corporate welfare policies of the Republicans are not part of the free market they claim to support. Obviously understanding of science totally undermines the goals of the conservative movement.
The conservative movement has been and will continue to be an appeal to the worst of human nature; liberalism is an appeal to the best. Modern conservatism has been successful because it plays to people’s ignorance rather than offering enlightenment. In some ways it is the path of least resistance. They use symbolism and glorify the ‘gut feeling.’ This makes people who have little knowledge of the issues feel good about themselves in the short term, even if it is ultimately disastrous for all of us.
It will be interesting to see how, and possibly even if, our democracy as we know it survives this challenge.
When you compare the number of books a political group reads, it means nothing! A poll on the number of words or content might be of interest. So a liberal reads, “The Cat in the Hat” and the conservative reads, “The Bible” that counts as one book.
This poll reminds me of the story were a liberal was in a bike race, when he got home to his family, he related that he came in second place and his Rival came in next to last. What the liberal forgot to share was there were only two people in the race. It would be good for readers, since liberals read more books, to read, “Statistics and Damn Lies”. Albert N. Milliron Politisite.com
Of course these statistics mean very little. If you want more meaningful findings I’d suggest looking at the Pew studies which show that conservatives are less well informed than liberals. This may or may not be related to the number of books each reads, but knowledge does appear to be inversely related to the amount of time spent watching Fox News.