Point taken. But that’s my point, too.

Shales is a talented writer and, sometimes, an insightful reviewer. (No, he is. Really.)

But like so liberal true believers, on many issues his “faith” blocks his reason — to the point of utter absurdity.

And maybe I’m behind the curve, but I’m distressed that conservatives and liberals have grown so far apart that it perhaps no long pays for the one to read the other, for the one to even attempt to communicate with the other.

Of course, liberals have never seriously read conservatives* – the only exception being when The New York Times Magazine or some such liberal publication would occasionally assign James Atlas or some such liberal writer to examine their strange practices and mores.

But on the right, many of us did read them. We knew their ways and spoke their tongue, because many of us had been raised in their villages. And I hadn’t given up on a cross-cultural dialogue. But, as I said, maybe I’m behind the curve.

* Quick true story: In 1994, when Republicans took control of Congress, I said to a friend, an editor at the NYT: “Well, I guess you’ll have to start reading the Wall Street Journal and National Review.” He scowled at me: “We can’t read that whacky stuff!”