Last Thursday I got a call from a blood bank telling me that my blood was a match for a baby who needs a heart operation. I went in this morning to donate a pint.
You would think that donating blood is a pretty nonpartisan activity, but it turns out that conservatives are much more likely to donate blood than liberals are. Liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof bemoaned this liberal embarrassment in a December 20, 2008 column and cites economist Arthur C. Brooks about this.
In 2006 Brooks wrote the book Who Really Cares which reports that in all forms of charity, conservatives are more generous than liberals, including blood donations, so much so that Dr. Brooks said, "If liberals and moderates gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply of the United States would jump about 45 percent."
As professor Thomas Sowell says, "Being willing to donate the taxpayers' money is not the same as putting your own money where your mouth is."
Or your blood.
If liberals have a reputation for being so compassionate, why don't they donate blood like conservatives do?
