and why do you say that?
What I said has been MY experience.

__________________
"I'm sorry but it's not my fault that I am not infected with white liberal guilt syndrome like you are!"

I don't think I've seen the contrast summed up better or more pithily anywhere else.

Neither view, of course, is accurate. But most of us don't have the time or the inclination to read all the way through Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions.

One of the interesting things about Sowell is that he is one of those conservatives who pays liberals the compliment of taking them seriously and disagreeing with them and challenging their assumptions on a high level. The aforementioned book is one such example.

__________________
Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia
"Jazz and blogging are both intimate, improvisational, and individual -- but also inherently collective. And the audience talks over both." --Andrew Sullivan, "Why I Blog," The Atlantic, November 2008

Everything I've read in article form from Sowell has been excellent. I should start reading his books.

These stories leave vague exactly what charities attract conservative -- but not liberal -- dollars and time. So, I'm going to guess that the difference is linked to church membership.

Conservatives are more likely to belong to a church. Churches are charities. Therefore, conservatives give more to charity.

__________________
"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G.K. Chesterton

Ding Ding Ding! Another winner.

Sigh.

It's not hard to find the statistics behind what you consider "vague" stories.

Here is a 25-page review of the book from the law review at the University of Texas law school filled with details.

You'll find your theory isn't terribly close.

It found conservatives are more likely to return correct change and give more blood. In other words, conservatives are more generous.

Let me make a small tangent. I know a lot of Jewish folk who believe in Jesus and maintain their Jewishness. People keep calling them deceptive. And it seems the primary reason is that it is so ingrained in people that you can't be Jewish and believe in Jesus many just can't wrap their heads around that premise being challenged.

You may be going through something similar. It may be so ingrained in you that conservatives are big ungenerous meanies that it is hard to recognize that conservatives are more generous than liberals, as a whole. Like the stages of grief, you are trying to bargain with the study.

Not so many details, really. The review makes some good points, such as that religion often fosters altruism. But, of course, it is in the interest of religious organizations to foster altruism, from which they benefit. (Do you doubt that a resolution in favor of tithing would be widely endorsed by clergy of all denominations?) Quoting: "The data reveal a huge “charity gap” that tracks religion, and religious participation is the single biggest predictor of someone’s altruism. To a large degree, America is split between religious givers and secular nongivers."

The review does not, however, identify the charities and causes to which conservatives give. My theory is that they give to their own churches. And that's fine. If you have evidence that this does not account for the conservative/liberal split on this issue, please share it.

__________________
"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G.K. Chesterton

Churches don't collect blood. Liberals' relative stinginess with their plasma can't just be explained away by claiming churchgoers are tossing envelopes of B-negative into the collection plate. (Brooks points out that if liberals were as generous with their blood as conservatives, the supply would jump by almost half.)

There's also this from the review:
(Emphasis added.)

I was astonished at how little Obama gave to charity last year. His income was $1.6 million and he gave what like $27,000 (about 1.6% of his income). I'm not anti-Obama by any means, but that's a little pathetic given what he stands for.