“Dean of feminists in Congress” Pat Schroeder: liberals are deep thinkers, conservatives are shallow sloganists

Democrat Pat Schroeder, a former Congresswoman from Colorado who NOW president Kim Gandy once called the “dean of feminists in Congress,” stuck her foot in her mouth recently by taking a swipe at conservatives and their reading habits:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry’s trade group says she knows whyβ€”and there’s little flattering about conservative readers in her 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.”

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.”

Riiiight. Let’s take a look at some of those “paragraphs”:

“Bush lied, people died!”
“War is not the answer!”
“Impeach CheneyMcBushitler!”
“No blood for oil!”

From NOW’s website:

“Against Abortion? Wear a Condom, Dude!”
“Against Abortion? Don’t Have One!”
“Not Every Sperm Needs a Name”
“Forced Pregnancy Increases Church Membership”
“I Asked God, She’s Pro-choice”

And last but not least, take a look at some of the deep, meaningful paragraphs in the pictures on this page – included if you scroll down a bit are ‘enlightening’ books on these deep thinkers’ reading lists (nudity warning for some of those pix).

What was that you were saying again, Schro?

Michael van der Galiën makes a great point here:

What I find amazing in this entire Γ’β‚¬Λœdebate’ is that Mrs. Schroeder does not pay any attention to what kind of books people read. Nor does she look at whether conservatives read more on the Internet or in magazines than liberals do.

Imagine this: liberals read “loose change – the book” while conservatives read “The Conservative Mind.” Liberals read “Harry Potter” conservatives read “Moby Dick.” Now, lets say that conservatives read 8 such books, while liberals read 9 of those “loose change” books. Who is more intelligent? Who is reading more intellectual books? Who isÒ€¦ etc.?

Of course, I find the entire debate to be silly, especially considering it is coming from the president of the American Association of Publishers. Strangely it seems to me that it should be her job and goal to help publishers sell as many books as possible, not to piss off as many people as possible.

Matthew Sheffield at Newsbusters has painstakingly taken the time to debunk the poll using terms we ‘shallow conservatives’ can understand. Eric M. Jackson from World Ahead Media analyzes the data as well. And Jules Crittenden wonders:

By the way, what the heck is a total partisan lib doing as president of the American Association of Publishers?

And along those same lines, why the hell does she seem so keen on broadcasting it? :-? What an extraordinarily dumb move by SuperSmartPat.

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