Consider the following paragraph. When and where was it written?

I know I should be speaking out when I hear statements such as these, but the sad fact is that I like these people. Barring their monomaniacal animosity towards Jews, they're otherwise very nice: they're hard workers, loving parents, good neighbors and helpful and reliable friends. Being the social creature that I am, I don't want with one word ("Jew") to turn these friendships upside down and inside out. (I'm not the only one with this problem.) I don't want to be on the receiving end of a hideous Jekyll to Hyde transformation, so I just keep my mouth shut.

Sorry, I cheated. I admit it.

The paragraph is from an anonymous woman located in Marin County, California. As I was reading her complaint about having to be a crypto-Republican, something in my brain said: "I wonder if this was a little bit it was like to be a Jew in before WWII in Europe." I wanted to see what it looked like if I'd change the prejudice, and substitute in another term.

Perhaps that's a bad move -- I'm not an alarmist, and I honestly don't expect an anti-Republican holocaust. (Solidly liberal enclaves are few and far between.) I also don't want to trivialize the holocaust by comparing it to something far less drastic. But still - isn't it the same mechanism, even if in a dilute, milder form? Having to hide one's identity to avoid complete social ostracism? Utter intolerance of difference?

Isn't this the same sort of thing the Armenian Christians thought about Turkish neighbors? Is this the same thing Maimonides thought while trying to pass himself and his family off as Muslims? What Jews in many times and places thought about antisemites? What certain Catholics might have felt from Protestants in US history? (Or vise-versa in Europe?) Do New York Liberals feel this same way in the deep south, or is there an asymmetry (as I would suspect)? Do liberals anywhere legitimately worry about having their paint job keyed for having a bumper sticker the same way conservatives do in many places?

Those people I know who have spoken aloud their new conservative political views have been horrified by the animosity turned against them by formerly friendly neighbors and colleagues. My in-laws who are, like me, 9/11 neocons (down in Los Angeles) have stared open-mouthed at colleagues who use staff meetings to revile Bush and the Republicans - all to the cheers and huzzahs of the other staff members. (Indeed, what they describe sounds remarkably like Orwell's Two Minutes Hate.) On the occasions when they've suggested that maybe, just maybe, Bush isn't the Antichrist, they've found themselves shunned by these same colleagues.

I understand: In many places I've worked, I'm one of the few conservatives, and have often felt that my more "liberal" colleagues would not take my repudiation of their views and beliefs anywhere near as lightly as I take their frequently injecting (half-baked) political talking points into business meetings. Sometimes I'd like to respond, but I know management would prefer we not inject politics (nor religion) into work.

What's your take? Anything you hide out of a legitimate fear of ostracism?