Maybe not every day, but regularly, or at least every now and then, just to satisfy themselves that the evil Liberals are still there and keeping everybody who doesn't agree with them out with their vicious insults. After all, isn't that why they used to post here? To prevent us from getting too strong, too influential, to reaching too large an audience in the Space community?

Or perhaps, to be more charitable, perhaps they do realize, deep down, that they were wrong. That they were wrong about the climate, racism, socialized medicine, about the President, about the whole mythology that the Conservative movement has evolved into. Maybe they are starting to understand that this fantasy world they have created of left-wing conspiracies and Communist cabals, of deep state star chambers, death panels, Soros and Buffet, Hillary, MSM and Hollywood and academic and professorial plots and treason and environmental "special interests" is just a reflection in a dark glass of the entire edifice of hate and deceit the Right has been patiently assembling since the McCarthy era.

Maybe they just realize they were wrong, and they are too ashamed to admit it in public. Lets face it, the grotesque outrages of the Trumpster are so obvious and obscene that defending them is impossible without resorting to the pretzel logic of the most ridiculous religious cults. They have hung their entire program on the performance of a madman, and now they can't come to admit it. And when a political movement becomes so devoted to their mad emperor that they can't admit to themselves that he is stark naked they lose all credibility. They become a laughing stock to any child capable of seeing it and pointing it out.

Of course, right and wrong are subjective concepts, as are all political positions. In politics, all points of view have their flaws and exceptions, which are made clear when they are pushed and exaggerated to extremes and dogma. The ends of the spectrum are always crazy, and they may realize that not only have they pushed their own philosophy and ideology so far that even what it had to offer that was of value is now rejected and despised. Maybe they realize subconsciously that their attempt to defend the indefensible means they won't be listened to any more--about anything else. Even if they speak the truth, no one will take them seriously any more. They have demonstrated their willingness to abandon objectivity, and they realize that, so they know no one will listen to them at all now.

Or perhaps they realize the colossal damage they have inflicted on their own cause by associating it with irrationality and fanaticism. They are not only too embarrassed to discuss this with their ideological opponents, they now cannot even talk about it with their own compatriots. They have created a world where questions and self-criticism are dismissed instantly as treason and apostasy. How many thoughtful and articulate Conservative intellectuals are now banished to the wilderness for daring to question the Party Line? And how many have refused to speak at all, looking the other way and pretending nothing is wrong for fear of being attacked and destroyed by their own brothers?

I wish they'd come back, not only because there is much in the Conservative program that is of value and must be preserved, but because they serve as an essential counterweight to prevent their opposition from making the same mistakes they did. It is not necessary to reject or even question all Conservative principles to promote Liberal ones. And that is a lesson we on the Left may have to learn the hard way, in the not too distant future.