Steve,

Do rightists self-sort? I certainly couldn't deny the possibility. Perhaps some suddenly-conservative Manhattanites feel a deep desire to move to Kansas in order to be around like minds?

I suspect this isn't as prevalent, for several reasons:

(1) Most the conservatives I personally know, including myself, are surrounded by "liberals".

Most seem puzzled by their inability to get some kind of sensible statement of worldview out of their left-leaning loved ones, but they don't seem to feel the need to distance themselves from them, personally.

(2) Conservatives, unless they decide to live in a cave, are exposed to both left-leaning and right-leaning interpretations of events. They listen to both mainstream media and conservative commentators.

So again, I don't see conservatives as "hiding" from the left's version of things. I feel I often understand the left-leaning argument better than the liberals to whom I speak, but I may be unusual in that regard.

On the other hand, I have a few formerly-liberal friends who remember "not wanting to hear about it" back in those days. So again, there's this desire to escape from "hearing", much like the angry atheist's desire for freedom "from" religion.

(3) Elites, by definition, are cliquish and exclusionary.

I don't know of any conservative "elites". Christians, for example, are always (or should be) inviting non-believers to join them with their Christian friends.

On the other hand, the whole New York Times venue is about reading the right books, holding the right stances, and being with the right people.

I myself notice that as I have become more conservative, I've also listened to conservative talk radio more, and read conservative blogs more. But not to the exclusion of omitting other opinions.

I think there are two reasons for this:

(1) Most the conservative sources I select seem more honest to me than libreral sources, in that they often report the data left out by the mainstream media. So I look to these sources for missing facts, or missing angles on those facts.

It's a desire for more information, not less.

(2) I listen to left-leaning sources -- like "The Nation" magazine, or "Air America" radio fairly frequently, but I get tired of verbally correcting their various errors they keep repeating.

(Such as the claim that "Bush lied" about WMD, or this new idea these economic ignoramuses are now endlessly pushing -- that it was somehow "in my best interest" economically to elect Kerry -- despite the fact he didn't promise to drop my taxes any, and promised to spend far more than Bush did on what I view to be misguided policies.)

I get stressed out by gross ignorance and/or continued dishonesty (who knows which it is?), so I listen to these voices less often. I can't get Al Franken to talk to me personally, he doesn't take many calls from conservatives, so there's no point in continuing to listen to him. He won't engage my points, and I can't agree with his since they don't include all the data I understand to be important.

So yes, I think we're hungry for "the other" point of view. That's how I became more conservative in the first place... I already knew the left side of things and was intersted in "the other" possible point of view.

Often this POV is best illustrated, as Dennis Prager and others do it, by having debates with people who disagree, rather than excluding dissenting opinions, not an insularity which "doesn't want to hear" the "other" point of view, and isn't intersted in hanging with people who express it.

Again, I freely admit my corner of the world may be unusual. But I see other conservatives around me in the same situation.