An America Full of Ben Steins?

Ben Stein is a great guy; his essay on his dog, who had died, is a classic. He knows how to have fun, too, and is a religious man--some would say "righteous" in the best (religious) sense of the term.

I'm not sure that I agree with him all the time---but then, here's how it came up.

...In the book I calculate the precise degree to which those views have been distorted. Specifically, I answer the question: What if we could magically remove the metaphoric glass and see, face-to-face, the average American, once his political views are no longer distorted by media bias? What would we see?

The answer, basically, is Ben Stein....

OOOOOOOOOOOKAAAY.....so huh?

More specific, the person whom we’d see is anyone—like Ben Stein—who has a Political Quotient near 25. The Political Quotient is a device that I construct to measure political views in a precise, objective, and quantitative way. A person’s PQ indicates the degree to which he is liberal. For instance, as I have calculated, the PQs of Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) are approximately 100. Meanwhile the PQs of noted conservatives Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) are approximately 0.

Thus begins the preface to a new book, excerpted at PowerLine.

In this magical world—call it a Ben Stein-ocracy—there would be just as many politicians to the left of Stein, O’Reilly and Miller as there are to their right. The same thing would be true of policies—that is, Stein, O’Reilly, and Miller would complain just as often that U.S. policies are too conservative as they would complain that they are too liberal.

In such a world, American political values would mirror those of present-day regions where the average voter has a 25 PQ. Such regions include the states of Kansas, Texas, and South Dakota. They also include Orange County, California and Salt Lake County, Utah.

(I just keep hearing "Bueller? Bueller?)

To the liberal elite, such places are a nightmare. They are family-friendly, largely suburban, and a large fraction of their residents go to church on Sundays.

The book, by the way, is the story of how the Press Left-i-ficated the US. Should be fun to read.

HT: PowerLIne