Sorry to Tim and everyone else here for my overwrought earlier postings. As you may deduce, I was reacting to more than just the topics at hand. Indeed, it really marks a culmination of many stresses and difficult situations, and my words were out of proportion in this context.

Nevertheless, I am sadly resigned to leaving Salon. It has been interesting and engaging over the years, but I no longer feel connected to it like I once did. Some things I will miss, others I will not, but in the end it's healthier for me to concentrate on things I can do good with, rather than just feel a helpless rage over.

Good luck in future to you all, and may we find each other again in country that has regained its soul.

Howard

In asking why conseratives don't abandon the current regime, regardless of how far it strays from their purported values, you have to look at what are the core unifying traits of a conservative. These are, in no particular order, (1) resistance to change, (2) fear of the new, and (3) the herd instinct.

In regards to the first point, you might point out that much has changed under the current regime, in fact to the point that America today scarcely resembles America of 20 years ago. But if you narrow down to the tiny worldview of the average conservative, very little has changed for them personally. They may have a neighbor whose son or daughter isn't coming home from Iraq, or another who lost there zero-down mortgage home, but overall things are still ticking along for them. They're not disappearing to rendition sites or losing their kid's health insurance, at least not yet.

The second point hardly needs discussion, as we are inundated with their fears every day. The media plays up each and every one of these terrors, no matter how irrational, because it's the easiest ride to viewer lock-in. Conservatives have always been afraid of new knowledge and options, which is why they've fought abortion, evolution, integration, acceptance of homosexuals and atheists, and any other step of progress towards a more enlightened civilisation. That they do so with the claim of preserving a mythical history of "American tradition" is nothing more than an internalised desire for the world to be a reflection of the way they think things should be, rather than the way they are.

The third and final point is what's key to this particular discussion. Conservatives harbour a sense of perpetual persecution, precisely because they are always being challenged and left behind by the changes in society. They see the natural processes of adaption and improvement as assaults, and they respond to such onslaughts by clumping together into defensive herds. Once ensconced, they then proceed to rally behind whoever is "on their side", even if only nominally, because to do otherwise is to show weakness to the circling wolves. That they will embrace the very wolves they fear, provided such wolves are carefully disguised, is merely a by-product of this instinct.

Lastly, as regarding "the dusty vials containing those myths" you mention, I would point out that these tropes go much farther back than that. In one form or another they are the xenophobic ideals that have united failing empires under charismatic orators throughout the march of history. There is nothing surprising in their resilience, as they are part of the standard toolkit of tyrants around the globe.