LIKE CATS AND DOGS. I'm all sorts of with Tom on this one. Pet perfection, thy name is canine. And having met Tom's dog before, I can attest to the inevitability of such feeling within him. But are we atypical, or evidence of a larger liberal affection for pups? Well, the fine folks at Neuroscience did some surveying on this very subject awhile back and, to my great disappointment, they found that liberals are cat people, while the staunchest pup partisans are the most conservative Americans:
So very conservative men and conservative women exhibit the highest preference for dogs, while very liberal women are very liberal cat ladies. There are, of course, some confounding factors here, including the concentration of liberals in urban areas where cat ownership is more plausible, while conservatives are over-represented in spacious exurbs and rural areas. Plus, liberals are more content to provide food and shelter for recipients who will do nothing to deserve it, while conservatives want waves of gratitude and the clear learning of tricks. Or so hears this soft, coastal dog lover who mainly likes pets for the self-esteem boost. So very conservative men and conservative women exhibit the highest preference for dogs, while very liberal women are very liberal cat ladies. There are, of course, some confounding factors here, including the concentration of liberals in urban areas where cat ownership is more plausible, while conservatives are over-represented in spacious exurbs and rural areas. Plus, liberals are more content to provide food and shelter for recipients who will do nothing to deserve it, while conservatives want waves of gratitude and the clear learning of tricks. Or so hears this soft, coastal dog lover who mainly likes pets for the self-esteem boost. --Ezra Klein
