It’s been my keen observation that one of the reasons conservatives generally have it tougher in American politics than liberals—in terms of media portrayal and public “persona”—is that conservatives have more of a tendency to be straight up. They are sooner to tell you, unabashedly, how they stand. Often, I sense that they sometimes even delight in stating a position they know someone else is likely to disagree with. On the other hand, I’ve observed liberals to have a greater propensity to tell you whatever it is they believe you want to hear if they sense you’re liberal, or if not, they stick to banal “crowd pleasers.” Next time you’re at a social gathering talking with strangers, give off various telltales in matters of politics. If you investigate, you will find that the ones who parrot what they think you want to hear are generally liberals while the ones who tell you what they think in spite of the telltale are generally conservatives.

So, assuming you have some stake in a given matter, would you prefer to deal with someone with whom you have some disagreements, but who’s straight up with you? Or, would you prefer someone whose statements amount to the equivalent of whispering sweet nothings?

A lot of people who would see Thomas Sowell walking down the street would assume him to find intellectual communion with the 90%+ of the black population who automatically—and seemingly instinctively—think in lock-step with one another on political issues. Of course, they would be wrong.

In this article, he explains why liberals have little choice but to be phonies. An excerpt:

You can’t run on that platform and win a national election. Moreover, you cannot frankly state the underlying assumptions behind the liberal vision of the world, such as the notion that the liberal anointed need to impose their superior vision on the masses.

Politically, you have to pretend to be one of the people, even though the whole basis of your vision is that you are vastly superior to the people. Even when you are a pompous elitist who looks down on the average American, you have to project a political image as a regular guy by being photographed with a baseball bat or a hunting rifle in your hand — or eating at Wendy’s.

Disinformation is where it’s at, if you are a liberal. Weakness on military defense, for example, has to be camouflaged by constantly using words like “strong,” “strength,” ” tough” and the like, while clenching your fist and using a bombastic tone.

(link via Keith Burgess-Jackson)