Liberals are better than Conservatives

I know you'll all be shocked to find out that I have this opinion, but it's true. I think Liberals are better than Conservatives. It's interesting why that should be shocking; Conservatives have no trouble describing Liberals in the blackest terms possible. But Liberals don't have the same standards; we are expected to see both sides of the issue. Well I do see both sides of the issue, and Liberals are better than Conservatives.

This is triggered by a comment of Random Goblins last week in response to this post.

I question just how tolerant liberals are of different ideas.

The answer, for those playing along at home, is a hell of a lot more tolerant than Conservatives. Want some evidence? We got evidence.

Point number one - there is no Liberal Ann Coulter. There is nobody on the left who has the same combination of malice, hatred AND success. I'm sure there genuinely nasty people on the left side of the fence; hell, I've been described as a liberal Ann Coulter (by a guy who went on to steal $90 of books of mine). But we don't reward them to the same tune that the Conservatives have rewarded Ann Coulter (and many others like her).

Ann Coulter's whole oeuvre is dedicated to tearing down liberals, often in personal terms. Who is there on the left who goes after the right with that kind of vehemence? Nobody of comparative importance.

Point number two - Liberals are generally interested in understanding Conservatives. Conservatives are content to caricature their political opponents. Salon's War Room had this story yesterday.

Liberals, the pollsters found, were "much more likely" than conservatives to tune in to commentary and entertainment with which they disagree politically. The result: The "potential audience" for, say, Rush Limbaugh is "larger than that of liberal competitors because more liberals say they will listen to conservatives than vice versa."

Kind of sad isn't it? Limbaugh has more listeners because of liberals like me who will turn in; Franken is screwed because Conservatives aren't interested in hearing view points other than their own.

Point number three (and I'm about out of points), consider Liberal and Conservative Media Criticism. Conservative Media Criticism is very clearly working the refs; you read or listen to Brent Bozell and he's not interested in a fair and balanced media. He's interested in a media that supports the conservative viewpoint. Consider the long list of liberals he and other conservatives think shouldn't be allowed on TV. Media Matters and FAIR on the other hand are, while critical from a liberal point of view, much more involved in getting better news in general, as opposed to simply making it more liberal.

David Brock (founder of Media Matters) doesn't want to get Ann Coulter off the air; he simply wants someone liberal to challenge her. And too often that's not the case.

Anyway I might come back to this later on today, but that's enough for now; Liberals really are more tolerant than Conservatives.