American conservatives have devolved over the last decade or so into separatists. They simply can't stomach any reminder that they share America with people unlike themselves; and Barack Obama is a dagger constantly piercing their shriveled little hearts. They're experiencing an existential need to flee from us in terror.

How things turned out for ReaganBook should be no surprise to oldtimey Zoners. Once we could operate an open community on the Internet, and we made it work because of a reasonable expectation of a minimal level of civility and willingness to be a member of the community and act like it, compromise included. But our community fractured just as the greater dirt-world community fractured. Something like ReaganBooks can't work today, if it ever could, because it requires a level of homogeneity that you can't mandate on the Internet. Not in a free membership-based community. But heterogenous communities on the Internet don't work any more. Remember that what motivated ReaganBook was dissatisfaction with all the "Others" at Facebook that harshed their vibe.

Gated communities in the real world have a powerful lever to ensure the good behavior of their residents: People throw their largest financial asset into the collectivist pot of a Home Owner's Association, under the terms of a legally-enforceable contract. Step out of line, and it'll cost you.

That may sound like paradise to a conservative (turning a blind eye to the irony of joining a collective), but it won't work on the Internet. Not when membership's free and signup is automatic. Unless the Koch Bros fund it, they won't be able to run background checks on every applicant for membership in their exclusive club. They might try charging a $9.99/month membership fee like Sarah Palin's "channel" (I guess that's wingnut-speak for "web site") or Glenn Beck's. But so what? Lots of liberals with a keen sense of humor will spend $10 to punk rightwingers. Lord knows, I spent more than that to register "cheney-palin.com" and never used it. $10 for a one-month membership in the revived ReaganBook sounds like cheap entertainment. Besides, you just know they'll end up offering a one-month free trial. I'll go for it.

I can't wait to see the new "protections" they come up to solve the "problem" of the "wrong sort of people" trying to join their little club. Here's my prediction: Whatever they come up with, it'll turn out the same way; the only variable will be how long things take to collapse.

The problem wasn't their implementation, it was their basic premise.