Interesting reading: "
Revenge of the Reality-Based Community," by Bruce Bartlett. I'm struck by how similar this story of disaffection from the conservative movement is to things Norman Podhoretz wrote a few decades ago about spearheading the neoconservative break from left-liberalism. Here's Bartlett:
At this point, I lost every last friend I had on the right. Some have been known to pass me in silence at the supermarket or even to cross the street when they see me coming. People who were as close to me as brothers and sisters have disowned me.
I think they believe they are just disciplining me, hoping I will admit error and ask for forgiveness. They clearly don’t know me very well. My attitude is that anyone who puts politics above friendship is not someone I care to have in my life.
Me: Of course, this reflects poorly on the state of the conservative movement today, just as Podhoretz's long-ago ostracism was an indicator of the insularity of the leftists he had known. But the deeper lesson is, there's more to life than politics. In fact, that's something conservatives used to emphasize.
