One of the generalizations I can make about "the Conservative mind" is that it feels a constant and generally unconscious need to put down other people who disagree. It's like RL's recent evolution in tactics: "OK, here's a nice sober presentation of the facts...A...B...C...you stupid asshole". The insults are almost like punctuation in Conservative sentences, and I think they no more notice it than fish notice the ocean.

Consider a Presidential news conference any time in the last seven years. Bush oozes contempt for the media, except for Fox "News" of course. I doubt anybody's had the balls to tell him that mainstream America identifies with the mainstream media just as much as hardcore RightWingers identify with Fox, and that one factor in his plummeting popularity is certainly his projected contempt for a majority of Americans. But I don't think he's conscious of it, nor can Bush change. He may mouth the words about how it's OK for people to disagree with him, but when he says it, he looks like he's swallowed a lemon. Disagreement is a bitter pill for a Conservative to swallow.

It's also reinforced by ideology, which ties being right about things to morality (and also to authority). Conservatives can't let themselves be wrong, because it makes them Bad and Wrong, and weakens Authority; and so contradicting a Conservative can never by solely an intellectual exercize, it will usually be perceived as an attack on the Conservative's character, morality, and general worth as a human being. We perceive Conservatives as lashing-out constantly and reflexively, but I think that from the inside, it looks to a Conservative as if he's constantly fending off attacks from a hostile universe. The Conservative inner narrative isn't about paranoia, though, it's about a beleagured minority (which nevertheless calls itself mainstream) valiantly defending the last shreds of what is Decent and Right from the implacable evil of Liberalism.

Fear of being wrong, a romantic/heroic inner narrative, authoritarianism...all combine in a wickedly self-reinforcing mental structure. You can't crack it, ER, any more than you can penetrate the event horizon of a black hole (and live to tell the tale). Peace in America won't come from trying to "reform" Conservatives. I think that it's actually up to the rest of us to restore the balance our system used to have, whereby Liberal insouciance was properly balanced by Conservative skepticism and dourness. Neither side can continue to fight as if it's possible to win and make the other go away; the proper fight for Americans is for peaceful coexistence.

In other words, grit your teeth and soldier on. Change what you can, accept what you can't.