Synopses & Reviews
In
Makers and Takers you will discover why:
* Seventy-one percent of conservatives say you have an obligation to care for a seriously injured spouse or parent versus less than half (46 percent) of liberals.
* Conservatives have a better work ethic and are much less likely to call in sick than their liberal counterparts.
* Liberals are 2½ times more likely to be resentful of others success and 50 percent more likely to be jealous of other peoples good luck.
* Liberals are 2 times more likely to say it is okay to cheat the government out of welfare money you dont deserve.
* Conservatives are more likely than liberals to hug their children and “significantly more likely” to display positive nurturing emotions.
* Liberals are less trusting of family members and much less likely to stay in touch with their parents.
* Do you get satisfaction from putting someone elses happiness ahead of your own? Fifty-five percent of conservatives said yes versus only 20 percent of liberals.
* Rush Limbaugh, Ronald Reagan, Bill OReilly and Dick Cheney have given large sums of money to people in need, while Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore, and Al Gore have not.
* Those who are “very liberal” are 3 times more likely than conservatives to throw things when they get angry.
The American left prides itself on being superior to conservatives: more generous, less materialistic, more tolerant, more intellectual, and more selfless. For years scholars have constructed—and the media has pushed—elaborate theories designed to demonstrate that conservatives suffer from a host of personality defects and character flaws. According to these supposedly unbiased studies, conservatives are mean-spirited, greedy, selfish malcontents with authoritarian tendencies. Far from the belief of a few cranks, prominent liberals from John Kenneth Galbraith to Hillary Clinton have succumbed to these prejudices. But what do the facts show?
Peter Schweizer has dug deep—through tax documents, scholarly data, primary opinion research surveys, and private records—and has discovered that these claims are a myth. Indeed, he shows that many of these claims actually apply more to liberals than conservatives. Much as he did in his bestseller Do as I Say (Not as I Do), he brings to light never-before-revealed facts that will upset conventional wisdom.
Conservatives such as Ronald Reagan and Robert Bork have long argued that liberal policies promote social decay. Schweizer, using the latest data and research, exposes how, in general:
* Liberals are more self-centered than conservatives.
* Conservatives are more generous and charitable than liberals.
* Liberals are more envious and less hardworking than conservatives.
* Conservatives value truth more than liberals, and are less prone to cheating and lying.
* Liberals are more angry than conservatives.
* Conservatives are actually more knowledgeable than liberals.
* Liberals are more dissatisfied and unhappy than conservatives.
Schweizer argues that the failure lies in modern liberal ideas, which foster a self-centered, “if it feels good do it” attitude that leads liberals to outsource their responsibilities to the government and focus instead on themselves and their own desires.
Synopsis
In
Do As I Say (Not As I Do), Peter Schweizer exposed the hypocrisy of liberal elites in Washington and Hollywood. In MAKERS AND TAKERS, he broadens his scope to examine the damaging effects of liberal philosophy on ordinary Americans. Drawing on national polls and reputable academic studies, as well as the revealing testimony of liberals themselves, Schweizer shows that Liberals are, on the whole, less honest, less generous, lazier, and more materialistic than their conservative counterparts. Moreover, conservatives are better parents, spouses, and citizens.
Schweizer’s portrait is not a mischievous exercise in “gotcha” journalism. Instead, tracing political and social changes over the past fifty years, he argues that the emergence of liberalism as a philosophy of selfishness is a direct result of big government. The enormous expansion of government has fostered the assumption among many Americans that the state is responsible for our financial, social, and moral well-being. From the myth that wealth is the result of luck and exploitation to the insistence that individuals are not accountable to God or social institutions, the principles of liberalism have corrupted the personal virtues and community values Americans once honored.
About the Author
Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and is the author of numerous books, including the New York Times bestseller Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy. He lives in Florida with his wife and sons.