Right-wingers need book larnin'

Most of the left of center people I know, even highly intelligent ones, do not read full length books on public policy issues. They might read spy novels, self-help books. But even when I have purchased copies of right of center books for left of center people, they haven't taken the time to read them.

I can convincingly argue either side of any major issue.

I haven't met many liberals who can do the same.

My dad is slightly to the right of Attila the Hun, in a Dubya-Can-Do-No-Wrong, Them-Libruls-Just-Wanna-Wreck-The-Country kind of fashion. He can't *not* argue politics for longer than five minutes. He is also a voracious reader, and one of the sharpest, smartest men I have ever known (even if I don't exactly find charity to be his strong suit, and I disagree with him ever-so-slightly-more than half the time).

To provide an example relevant to this topic, he had never heard of Russell Kirk until I asked him if he knew anything about the book The Conservative Mind; I got him a copy for Father's Day last year, and he's still finishing it. He says it's been an education, but not really an education he ever wanted. "This guy doesn't say anything in five words when he could say it in fifty," he says. "Did he ever think about writing something in a way that people could actually read? It doesn't do him any good to make an argument only intellectuals will ever see, let alone comprehend." I pointed out that this was amusing, considering I believe him to be one of the biggest intellectuals I've ever encountered.

Another relevant episode was when he saw the movie Jurassic Park; he was inspired to read the book. After he finished it, I asked him which he preferred; the answer was, "The movie." Why? "Because I didn't have to remember names, and it took two hours of my life for the movie to make a point that it took the book ten hours of my life to make."

Anecdotal at best, I understand, but it seems apropos and is always something I come back to when I hear people talking about conservatives being "anti-intellectual". My father doesn't strike me as anti-intellectual in terms of being against intelligence; rather, he comes across as anti-intellectual in the sense of intellectualism as a cultural force. He loves to read, but he doesn't want the writer to be explaining to him why the book is good for him. He'd just prefer the writer to get to the point and not give him something he can get another, more efficient, way. Efficiency... hm. There's that word again.

Richard

Professional inclinations probably play a role here, too. I remember in college I didn't read a book for months, because my engineering classes made it pretty impractical to read anything but the texts. I looked forward to summer so I could finally have time to get into a novel. After graduation, I started reading again, but it was pure off-hours. Now liberals tend to go in for more "wordy" professions, like social work and teaching. These professions require much more in the way of book reading. If the poll was parsed out for professional differences, I'd take a bit more notice, but it doesn't seem to be.

As far as the sneers about sloganeering go, leftist books can engage in the same thing, too. They especially go for the quick pity party approach. It's not just conservatives who go for the easy emotional appeal.

Frankly, considering that the poll in question was based on a telephone survey I'd be more likely to conclude that conservatives use caller i.d. than that they read fewer books. But that's based on my totally non-random and non-scientific personal experience of NOT answering calls from telemarketers, even if they are just conducting a survey.

Granted, there are many thoughtful conservatives who leaven the whole lump to a degree, and they are the ones that Pat Schroeder doesn't know about (or, more likely, doesn't want other people to know about). But in my experience there is a core of truth to her remarks. Large numbers of conservatives read (to the extent they read at all) to reinforce their prejudices, or to tickle their erogenous zones with some incendiary rhetoric. These are the people who keep the once-great house of Regnery in business, the people at whom Mary Matalin was maladroitly aiming, the people who think Ann Coulter is good for American public life, the people from whom a reference to Russell Kirk elicits "Beam me up, Scotty." Let a conservative thinker try to take them out of their rutted mental footpath, and they hate him for it.You found that out yourself, Rod. (And please, combox commandos, don't pelt me with brickbats because there are myriads on the left who are just as bad. I'm perfectly aware of that. But because I'm not a man of the left, it irritates me more to see these defects on my own side.)

I've found that a lot of the less 'bookish' conservatives still read a lot, even if it's Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter. But the ones that I've introduced to the works of Kirk, Weaver, etc., as well as journals like 'Chronicles' and 'Modern Age' seem to take to them. They often express surprise, however, that there is a conservative world beyond that of the neo-cons.

Echoing Rob, I think much of the problem of the reading palate of conservatives can be blamed on lack of exposure. How many people who read Hannity and Coulter (not that there's anything wrong with reading Ann Coulter given that she rocks) are even familiar with ISI or Spence Publishing or St. Augustine's Press? Spence, provides a very good mix of serious minded but readable non-fiction, with authors like Carson Holloway, Christopher Wolfe, Thomas Hibbs, Robbie George, and J. Budziszewski, as well as a few bomb-throwers to make things interesting. But unless you already know about them and frequent their website, I'm not sure where you would run across their books.

http://www.spencepublishing.com/

St. Augstine's Press, by the way, is currently publishing St. Thomas Aquinas' biblical commentaries.

not that there's anything wrong with reading Ann Coulter given that she rocks

Lying and prevarication, class-baiting, homophobia and general mean-ness constitutes what "rocks?"

I'm glad I'm henceforth free to ignore anything else that emanates from the self-described "fool's" keyboard.

"But even when I have purchased copies of right of center books for left of center people, they haven't taken the time to read them."

Amazing. How long does it take to read "My Pet Goat"?

Kim M