That "expletive deleted" across the street, fumed my spouse

[question everything]

upon entering the house last weekend. "He is going to place a Bush Cheney sign in his yard."

This really did not surprised me. We moved here two years ago and that neighbor, while always polite and smiling when we are face to face, is behaving like a recluse most of the time. It is not that he is divorced - many are - or, as other neighbors told me - when he was married they used to always party and invite everyone. It is just that there is a hostility, a passive aggressive expression in his demeanor. At one time someone was knocking on his door to serve him with something and he was yelling at him to get the hell off his property.

And I was reminded of the description of the typical Limbaugh listener that I read some years back in the Chicago Tribune:

The niche is disappointed people, mostly men. Andrew Kohut, the highly regarded pollster for Times-Mirror, has described "the typical Limbaugh listener" as a "white male, suburbanite, conservative better-than-average job but not really a great job. Frustrated with the system, with the way the world of Washington works. Frustrated by cultural change. Maybe threatened by women."

Somebody, in short, who is not as rich, powerful or famous as he thinks he should be, and who wants to blame outside forces. The talk- show hosts help. They blame cultural (but rarely economic) elites and the government for the world's ills and regularly reinforce the listener's sense of being scorned and ridiculed.

Among the privileged classes who have kept the talk-show listeners from their rightful status are immigrants ("You open the door to them, and the next thing you know, they are defecating on your country and breeding out of control," Savage once said), homosexuals, women and racial minorities, which explains the racial and sexual innuendo rarely far from the surface of talk radio.

Most people are not rich, powerful or famous, but this does not make most people potential right-wing talk-radio fans. Most of us have figured out that we probably ended up pretty much where we belong. Our modest talents, limited ambitions and flawed characters explain why we are not president of the company or head of the division--not affirmative action or meddling bureaucrats.

But some find it hard to accept this reality, for which there is a reason: liberalism.