[Via Instapundit] This "coming out of the closet" by a Jewish Republican has elicited the a round of shallow humor over at Hit & Run about "oppressed Republicans" and "Republican wimps." The article, though, rings true. There are several bloggers on the St. Blog ring that go by aliases because they are academics. I don't think their fears are excessive. I know what happened to my grade one semester in economics when I made a pro-nuclear power pitch against a TA and, hence, I did not major in economics. Likewise, in my role as the "only other conservative" at UCLA law school, I could identify as many open Communists as I could other Republicans. [One to One.]

The Hit and Run comments miss the real point about the ignorance and narrowness that passes for depth among the New Class of academics and urbanites. Bigotry and villification are sometimes appropriate. Nazis should be loathed. Klan members should be loathed. Communists should be loathed. But Republicans? How can any thinking person develop that reaction against either of the two major centrist American political parties?

Shallow bigots would be my guess.