Peter Schweizer - Makers and Takers: Why Conservatives Work Harder, Feel Happier, Have Closer Families, Take Fewer Drugs, Give More Generously, Value Honesty More, Are Less Materialistic And Envious, Whine Less... And

CONTENTS

To the memory of Caspar W. Weinberger, friend, mentor, patriot, gentleman

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have been affiliated with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace as a research fellow since 1999. It is hard to find a better intellectual environment in which to work. Given that I first became interested in political ideas reading Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell in high school, walking the halls of the Hoover Institution has been a truly inspirational experience. Im still every bit as fascinated by the ideas being generated by my Hoover colleagues as I was back in high school.

John Raisian has given me support and the opportunity to write and think about ideas that I care about, sometimes even if they move in difficult directions. John, thanks for your leadership and friendship. Thanks also to David Brady, Richard Sousa, Stephen Langlois, Jeff Bliss, Don Meyer, and Noel Kolak for their faithful leadership and encouragement. I would also like to thank the following individuals who have either directly or indirectly inspired me over the years with their ideas and commitment to scholarship: Richard V. Allen, George Shultz, Peter Berkowitz, Martin Anderson, Ken Jowitt, Tom Henriksen, Michael McFaul, Thomas Sowell, Edwin Meese, Victor Davis Hanson, Tod Lindberg, Kiron Skinner, and Robert Zelnick. I also want to say a special thanks to my good friend, Hoover fellow Peter Robinson. Thanks for your wisdom, remarkable spirit, and friendship.

A number of friends have inspired me over the years and I am truly grateful. Thanks to Ron Robinson at Young Americas Foundation: It was Ron who first introduced me to the writings of Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and so many others. Fellow writers and friends Wynton Hall, David Ridenour, John Bickley, Paul Kengor, Bill Mattox, Chris Ruddy, and Bob McClure also encouraged me and helped to pick me up when I was feeling down. I also want to thank Stephen K. Bannon: Your passion is infectious.

Thanks also to everyone at Doubleday, who were supportive of this project from the beginning: Stephen Rubin, Bill Thomas, Nicole Dewey, and Dan Feder. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Adam Bellow, one of the most original thinkers I have met in my life. Thanks, my good friend, for all of your insight and help.

Finally, what can I say about my family? They are patient when Im up late working on the manuscript and encouraging when Ive had enough and about to throw the laptop into the pool. My dearest Rochelle, thanks for sticking with me. Jack and Hannah, thank you for being our children. You are the best thing that has ever happened to us. To my mom, Kerstin Schweizer, thanks for the encouraging words every time we speak. Joe, Maria, Rich, and Evelyn, thanks for putting up with me.

This book is dedicated to the memory of the late Caspar Weinberger, who I had the good fortune to know, and to work with, for fifteen years. He was a friend, mentor, patriot, and gentleman. R.I.P., Cap.

INTRODUCTION
Why Conservatives and Liberals
Are Different

A ll people are born alike, Groucho Marx once said. Except Republicans and Democrats.

Groucho might have been joking, but today the differences between liberals and conservatives are widely discussed and debated. And somehow, they always break to the advantage of the left. Whats more, its not conservative ideas that are under assault, but conservatives themselves. Conservatives are said to suffer from severe personality defects and a host of other maladies that make them dysfunctionalif not actually dangerous.

George Lakoff, a professor of linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley (where else?), has a popular theory. Embracing the unimpeded pursuit of self-interest, conservatives will do pretty much anything to get what they want. Lakoff has nightmares because conservatives are mean and greedy, and what is even scarier is that they believe what they say. On top of which, they are abusive to their kids. They ignore their children when they cry and are instead busy beating them with sticks, belts, and paddles, he writes.

Unlike conservatives, [Democrats] believe in working for the public good and social justice, Lakoff explains without presenting a shred of evidence. But he doesnt lay out these theories in books released by fringe publishers. These ideas come from his book Moral Politics, released by the University of Chicago Press. What explains this horrid emotional and psychological wasteland that is the modern conservative? Lakoff (who is not a psychologist) speculates that conservatives are the product of bad parenting. Raised in a strict father home, they are emotionally warped and wounded, and this explains why they are apparently prone to anger and violence. Lakoff warns, The more children brought up with strict father values, the more conservatives we will have. That this is a very bad thing apparently needs no argumentation.

Liberals, on the other hand, are products of a nurturing home, and thats why they are so generous and caring. A true liberal, Lakoff writes, is empathetic; helps the disadvantaged, protects those who need protection, promotes and exemplifies fulfillment in life, and takes care of himself so he can do all this.

Lakoff is no isolated crank. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has hailed him as one of the most influential political thinkers of the progressive movement and made his book required reading for his staff. Democratic senators have invited him to speak at private retreats, and he was considered an unofficial aide-de-camp to the Kerry campaign. His ideas get regular play on PBS and NPR, and his books are assigned in dozens of college classrooms.

Other academics have made similar scientific claims. In March 2006, a pair of professors from UC-Berkeley (quelle coincidence!) published a paper in the Journal of Research in Personality which explained that insecure, whiny children grow up to be conservatives. The article was immediately picked up by major news outfits like the Chicago Sun-Times and Canadas Toronto Star. Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative, noted the Sun-Times. The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, nonconforming adults with wide interests. [The study] reasons that insecure kids look for reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics.

Never mind that this study was based entirely on the subjective observations of two admittedly liberal researchers. The finding was embraced by news outlets around the world because it conformed to the media image of conservatives as being psychologically deformed.