Peter Schweizer’s Makers and Takers examines conservative/liberal divide and the ways in which conservatives are happier

In Makers and Takers, a new volume by Peter Schweizer, a Hoover Institution research fellow, 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 two and a half times more likely to be resentful of others’ success and 50 percent more likely to be jealous of other people’s good luck

* Liberals are two times more likely to say it is ok to cheat the government out of welfare money you don’t 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 else’s happiness ahead of your own? Fifty-five percent of conservatives said yes versus only 20 percent of liberals.

According to Schweizer, 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 have 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.

Schweizer has dug deep—through tax documents, scholarly data, primary opinion research surveys, and private records—and discovered that these claims are a myth. Indeed, he shows that many of these claims actually apply more to liberals 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.

Peter Schweizer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of numerous books, including the New York Times best seller Do as I Say (Not as I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy. He lives in Florida with his wife and sons.

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 even hug their children more than liberals
by Peter Schweizer
Doubleday