Idiocy from all sides (mostly Left) and why I keep myself hidden

As you know, I did an article in American Thinker about my keeping a low profile (read: invisible) as a neocon in a liberal community. As you also know, a lot of people thought I was being incredibly cowardly, which is probably true. However, I keep reading things that reinforce my sense that, as long as I'm not actively fomenting evil conduct in a closed society (which I'm not) silence has its virtues. For example, yesterday, I read the Anchoress's "How can I like you, you're a Conservative?" post. After describing how a pal of hers got on a soapbox about the bigotry inherent in such a phrase, the Anchoress had this to say:

My pal is more of a centrist than I am, and she is usually quicker to give someone the benefit of a doubt, but I thought her rant was justified, and her conclusion right-on. I’d been a Democrat and a liberal all my life and never heard Republicans described, in my family or in my neighborhood, or by my fellow Dems as “evil” until the Clinton campaign of 1992, where all of a sudden right and left no longer denoted differences of opinion, but became absolute, moral judgements. Suddenly, if one did not believe what you believed one was not simply in disagreement, one was “evil.” Hillary seemed to be signalling that idea more than Bill, but it was certainly out there. I remember the exact moment I knew I could not vote for Al Gore in the 2000 campaign. Beyond his annoying personal manner during all three debates (I still laugh to think of how he seemed to approach Bush threateningly at the “townhall” debate and Dubya just looked at him, said “how ya doin’?’ and walked on) I knew I could not pull the lever for him when he, working a crowd, sweating up a shirt and panting cried out, “this is not just an election, this is a battle between good and evil!”

My point exactly. And today, thanks to a Michelle Malkin post, I was led to "The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes For 2005," John Hawkin's contribution to end-of-the-year laughter and moaning. Much in the list is incredibly funny (I'd forced myself to forget Drew Barrymore stating "I took a poo in the woods hunched over like an animal. It was awesome."), but much simply reinforced my self imposed silence:

37) "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for..." -- Howard Dean 36) "George W. Bush is evil. He is a terrorist. He is evil. He is arrogant. And he is out of control." -- Julianne Malveaux *** 33) "The day Dick Cheney is going to run for president, I'll kill myself. All we need is one more liar." -- Helen Thomas *** 10) "This President is never gonna do the right thing. I think somewhere deep down inside him he takes a lot of joy about losing people, if he thinks they vote Democrat or if he thinks they're poor, or if he thinks they're in a blue state, whatever his reasons are not to rescue those people." -- Air America's Randi Rhodes speculates that Bush wanted Democrats to die in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina *** 7) "George Bush doesn't care about black people...They're giving the Army permission to go down and shoot us." -- Kayne West on the rescue efforts in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina

None of my neighbors are crude enough, or stupid enough, to voice some of these opinions (although all will cheerfully castigate Bush as "evil"), but the feeling is out that there Bush is Satan incarnate, making his follower's devils too.