CULTURE WATCH : Left or Right? Give ‘em a Hand

In an election year, the relative merits of left and right are often the subject of heated debate.

In this year’s presidential race, both leading candidates, President George Bush and Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, are left-handers.

But does handedness have any relation to political leanings?

Former President Ronald Reagan reportedly was a natural southpaw who was forced into right-handedness as a child. A Democrat in his early years, he later became a Republican.

Left-handed people have never had it easy. Even in the dictionary, the word for left-handedness, sinistral, is associated with sinister. Right-handedness? Well, that is dextral, associated with dexterity.

Former President Gerald Ford is a southpaw whose frequent loss of dexterity served as grist for comedy routines in the ‘70s. But Ford was also known to have written right-handed at times.

Some say left-handers are smarter and more creative than average right-handers. Alexander the Great, Queen Victoria and Julius Caesar were all left-handers.

Presidents James A. Garfield and Harry S. Truman were also “lefties,” in the handed sense.

While left-handers make up 10% to 15% of the general population, during the 1988 campaign the publisher of Lefthander Magazine speculated that there were an “above-average” number of political southpaws.

If so, does this mean our elected officials will be more imaginative, intelligent and sensitive?

One can only hope.