Prominent liberals support a whole litany of policies and principles: intensifying taxes, affirmative action, greater regulation of corporations, increasing the inheritance tax, tight environmental regulations, children’s legal rights, consumer rights, and even more. But do they in fact live by these beliefs? Peter Schweizer made a decision to investigate the private lives of politicians just like the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, the Kennedys, and Ralph Nader; commentators Michael Moore, Al Franken, Noam Chomsky, and about Perform As I Say (MUCH LESS I REALLY DO): Information in Liberal Hypocrisy Cornel Western world; entertainers or philanthropists Barbra Streisand and George Soros. Using publicly-available real estate records, IRS returns, court depositions, and their very own published statements, he sought to examine whether they lived with the principles they therefore forcefully advocate.

What he found was more information on contradictions. Many of these proponents of arranged labor had created various solutions to sidestep paying union wages or avoid using unions altogether. They were also adept at staying away from taxes; invested heavily in corporations that they had denounced; required advantage of foreign taxes credits to make use of non-American labor abroad; espoused environmental causes while opposing those that might have an effect on their own residence rights; hid their purchases in trusts to avoid paying estate taxes; denounced oil companies but quietly owned them.

Schweizer’s conclusion is simple: liberalism in the long run forces its adherents to be hypocrites. They adopt one pose in public, however when it comes to what matters most in their very own lives-their real estate, their personal privacy, and their children–they jettison their liberal concepts and adopt conservative types. If these ideas don’t work for the individuals who promote them, Schweizer asks, how can they function for the country?