President of Publishing Trade Group Says Conservatives are Dumb

By Rick Moran

Former Congressman Pat Schroeder* sure doesn't think much of the intelligence of conservatives.

Now ensconced as the President of the American Association of Publishers, Schroeder gave us the benefit of her penetrating analysis regarding the reading habits of liberals and conservatives in a recent interview:

"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."

I'm not sure quite how to respond to that kind of idiocy except to say it is pretty obvious Mrs. Schroeder has not read many books by conservatives. But when did not having the facts at hand to butress your argument ever stop a liberal from claiming that conservatives are stupid?

This is such an article of faith among the left that it has become a given - as much a part of liberal ideology as national health insurance or weak foreign policy. They have consistently denigrated the intellectual acumen of conservative presidents since Eisenhower, perhaps reaching a zenith of sorts with their shallow, wrongheaded caricature of Ronald Reagan as a dunce.

Even after Reagan proved them wrong time and time again, liberals stuck with their characterization of Reagan as an old, stupid, movie actor. Reagan, of course, loved it. The more his foes underestimated him, the easier it was to steamroll his ideas and programs through Congress.

Bush has had similar charges about his intelligence tossed his way but has met with less success than his predecessor in debunking those myths. The President is a very well read man whose communications abilities, at times, are lacking which has given his opponents an opening.

Will the left ever tire of this old canard? Not as long as the press eagerly laps up the kind of patently false statements like those from Patricia Schroeder.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky

* Ms. Schroeder was mistakenly identified as a past president of the National Organization for Women. She never had any such position. We regret the error.