As a libertarian, I of course accept the view that conservatives and liberals are really very similar--that there's not a dime's worth of difference. Maybe a nickel's worth. Anyway, the difference is not zero.
One difference I have noticed is how differently liberals and conservatives view wins by their opponents. If Kerry wins (as I still predict he will), conservatives won't like it, but they won't be perplexed: some people are simply liberal. They didn't like Clinton being President, but they don't feign surprise and shock when they actually meet a liberal. They know some people are liberal.
However, ones gets the impression leftists are always baffled that anyone decent could ever vote for a Republican. They are still sputtering in incomprehension about Bush's 2000 win. The seem to hang around such cloistered, effete, smug liberals in enclaves like NY and Hollywood and DC that they simply don't know anyone who is conservative. Hence their bug-eyed promises to move to France if Bush wins; their instant labeling of conservatives as racists, anti-semites etc. The liberals are simply so self-righteous (despite being more totalitarian, intolerant, and fascistic in general than conservatives, even on their pet issues like free speech) and smug in their superiority, back-slapping over AIDS fundraisers and thinking they are "smarter" than conservatives; that anyone who is a conservative is simply an uneducated redneck hillbilly cracker ... that they think their candidate is "obviously" better; so obvious that you have to be depraved--racist, misogynist, anti-semitic, selfish--not to see it.
So if Bush actually wins, one silver lining will be the total outrage, incomprehension, and befuddlement on the faces of liberals the next morning. And taking pleasure in the fact that liberals self-congratulate themselves on being so smart but on really being too stupid to realize that Bush is really a liberal too.
