The Bomb ...

No, not the one for which we did "duck and cover" drills as schoolkids in the '60s, not the one that, when I got to SAC, demanded 12 B-52 bombers and 6 KC-135 tankers be launched within a 7 minute window; the amount of time we had before our base would be destroyed by incoming.

No, the bomb that's ticking, the fuse that's burning, within the conservative head.

So there you sit with a bomb in your head.

It's a bomb which will detonate if you ever admit -- even for a moment, even to yourself -- that the Evil Libruls have ever been right about anything.

If detonated, this bomb will not only annihilate your identity, your ideals and your faith...not only destroy your standing in the community, the esteem of your friends, the respect of your spouse and children and, potentially, your livelihood...but it will also utterly humiliate you.

Should that bomb ever go off you would be forced to admit that have gotten really, really important things terribly wrong for the last 10...20...30...40 years.

...

It's why we have a "Dead End Quarter", the 25 - 30% of Americans who absolutely refuse to get a grip on reality or take an introspective look in the mirror.