That jives with my experience in the Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex.

I know I and one or two fellow coworkers as middle and high school teachers would often bite our tongues when the subject of politics came up. We knew we would have to work with the other faculty members and administrators and it was easier to keep our counsel to ourselves than try to argue with those obstinate soles.

I live in a town adjacent to Cambridge, MA - the third piece of the ABCs. And yes, I have actually used the same analogy of how being conservative is the 2000's version of being gay and in the closet.

I will not forget the dinner we had with some (ex) friends - who do not know our political leaning - five or six years ago. I cannot remember the specific topic, but will never forget the wife remarking about a group, "They support all the right things, abortion, gay marriage, anti-capital punishment (yadda, yadda) - all the things we all believe in." I sat there with my eyes open, not at the indivudal items, but that there was a proscribed dogma that was not to be discussed. I would have never called her a deep thinker in any event, but she said it with such finality that I didn't dare try to embark on a discussion about some of the nuances of each of those issues.
So we stay in the closet, they never get challenged, and now look who is running the political discourse....

After losing my McCain/PALIN yard sign to thieves and having my bumpersticker half scratched off, I just didn't bother with replacement.

It's not fear in my case, just "why bother?"

I'm in San Jose, California. It was going to vote Obama no matter what I did.

When I became a resident of Texas, my car was keyed a number of times when it displayed a Darwin-fish bumper sticker. It could have been a coincidence, but my sans-Darwin car has NEVER been keyed.

The Corporate realm is responsible for most of the "fear" you describe... and with good reason. It's not at all irrational when those who are outspoken are denied employment or fired for speaking out about their political views.

The more reliant you are for a paycheck from AnyCompany, Inc, the more in the closet you have to be.

The Left doesn't appear to suffer from this problem. I've had numerous encounters with people who freely express their views at the workplace... but those are the politically correct views and mine are (clearly) not.

I don't think the office is the place to discuss politics (EVER) or religion (double-never), or one's sexual preferences (triple-never), but what someone says outside of the office should not be subject to the same scrutiny.

Personally, I blame the lawyers. Kim, for example, is considered a risk because he owns guns. He is a risk of a libelous charge of sexual harassment, because he posts pictures of attractive women on his website. A jury could find him guilty of sexual harassment in the workplace, for being open about his pleasure of looking at beautiful women outside of the office. A judge doing his job should never allow that into court, but all judges are not competent.

Of course it all sucks, but until we win the lottery and don't have to rely on Any, Inc., discretion is advised.

I think the closeting effect is real. Staying in the closet also requires making no political contributions. Sites like http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com

show who contributed how much to whom and when. How many people choose not to contribute because they don't want their neighbors to know? Nothing stops an employer or union from seeing if an employee or member made the "correct" contribution. Where is the outcry about the "chilling effect" of this?

Live free or die.

I think there's another fear, fear of acting like an asshole. Maybe we don't want to sink to their level. (I am a very low-ranking person in the entertainment industry, btw.)

Unfortunately, one of the factors that keeps right-of-center people in the closet is that some of the people out of the closet are fiercely, defensively outspoken, and many of them are outraged social conservatives.

Well, you may have something there. I intensely dislike having Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter thrown in my face by anyone who pegs me as a conservative. I don't listen to Limbaugh and so am not in any position to agree or disagree with him, but Coulter is a bomb thrower who says things solely to provoke a response and to get attention. And I refuse to permit others to define what my opinions are.

Steve, I'm with you there. IMHO, Rush is mostly an idiot - after he made fun of Chelsea Clinton (then about 12 years, I think) I stopped watching or listening to him.

Then, in 2005 I was in a vehicle with a Rush fan on a relatively long drive and ended up listening to Rush explain how intelligent design should be taught because evolution didn't make sense. I really did have to bite my tongue!

As for Coulter, she has to be thrown in my face before I have any idea what she's said or written.

I live in SF and definitely have a radar for right of center thinkers. I wish my inner Treacher could come up with a clever moniker, but, oh well...

Prevailing social mores are politically correct. Conservative principles are non-PC. Being non-PC can get you fired or not promoted etc. Also arguing politics in workplaces is considered not polite. I grew up during the 1960's to 1970's and may parents generation was that religion and politics was not discussed because that caused arguments and was impolite.

I admit I was more outspoken in the workplace in the 1980's. I was very amused in 2004 when a woman coworker said she used the company bonus money to buy a Glock to the Director, he was quite taken back to see a young attractive 26 year old woman enthusing about shooting. He joking said he would not offend her.

I instead would have discussions with the Boy scouts when we traveled hours in the car about gun control- bad. And capitalism and other political philosophies. Mainly anti nanny state stuff etc and the line of government authority and where police get their authority. It comes from us we delegate and have the right to take it back. What freedom really is?

I had a devoted audience. Boys just loved it. They were never told about this stuff and they knew I respected a smart opinion.

I found talking to young people much more productive. They are malleable and open to philosophies that conservative and not socialist. Boys are used to being blamed for so much and so are receptive to non affirmative action ideas or that reality and nature are not fair.

I found that even religious Conservatives were quiet during this particular election. It was like we ( the McCain supporters) were belonging to a secret society, almost with secret handshakes and signals.
It is hard to express concern, even now, after the election, because it just doesn't seem PC to do so.
We live in an area with lots of African-Americans in the community as well as in our church.

"Maybe we don't want to sink to their level."

This one hit a nail for me. Being conservative with a decided libertarian bent, I keep my mouth shut because I'm not willing to wrestle in the mud with pigs. Every time I have, my opponent immediately descended into ad hominems, foul language or attempted to shame me for the simple crime of having a different opinion; or all the above. They had a distinct inability to stick to the issue.

Another example is how, so often, when I've criticized someone's viewpoint their immediate response is to inform me of their right to express their opinion. As if I were challenging their right and not their opinion.

That's when I walk away. They're too dense to differentiate between the two. As Whitehall said, "Why bother?" When people are running on raw emotion there are no facts in the world that can change them.

Now my brother, "the family liberal", is another issue. I can shut him up with a sentence or two :) (especially if my dad is standing behind me)

I found that even religious Conservatives were quiet during this particular election. It was like we ( the McCain supporters) were belonging to a secret society, almost with secret handshakes and signals.
It is hard to express concern, even now, after the election, because it just doesn't seem PC to do so.
We live in an area with lots of African-Americans in the community as well as in our church.

I was invited, no begged, by a senior associate (now a partner) at my law firm to attend a professional roundtable designed to discuss different political views. I tried to opt out, saying that as a libertarian, my views would get me in trouble. I was told that no matter what I said, I'd be fine. So I went and criticized laws that made private discrimination illegal. I was soon after told that this criticism was inappropriate, and that I would need to be more careful if I wanted to keep my job.

I'm a 9/11 convert to Conservatism which I suppose means I'm 'neo-con'(a Liberal translform Conservative). Prior to 9/11 I was in the theater, often opined the ever popular 'Rush is a right-wing nutcase out to deatroy America' and 'Reagan was a warmonger who caused AIDS' dispite the fact that I never once listend to Rush and was into heavy duty narcissism in 1980's. Even up into 2000, we in the theater would often mock and ridicule 'the backward, puritian America because they were not screwing 100 bunnies a night'. I did not have children and am married and divorced however today, IMO, I have no doubt that in their lust of power 2nd wave marxists feminism beginning in the 60's (of which I lived under my entire life until the age of 40 when 9/11 struck) has almost destroyed Womanhood, a concept opposite Feminism.

A month after 9/11 I purchased a home computer and begin reading stuff other than plays; Dr THomas Sowell was my very first read and since then I have learned the values of Conservative principles; today I feel empowered by these principles not by any COllectivists governemnt.

From my perspective, the main principles of COnservatism ie national defense, smaller government/less taxation, and culture of life compliment one another to the extent they help to promote the general Welfare and secure Liberty far more effective than does Collectivism (ie centralized statist governance)

National security and fiscal responsibily are easy to defend however the Culture of Life not so much since Social Conservatists are forced by Collectivists (the left) to argue from a religious perspective ie., 'oh your a religious evangelical therefore your argument in invalid becasue GOD doesn't like what I do in the bedroom' type of thing.

To preface, I do not belong to any church however as I have aged I find myself moving closer towards GOD, for me more often than not these days I am beginning to see this as a natural course of the human condition.

Given that; my motivation for conserving traditional elements found in the social conservative argument has been shown to me by what is currently happening in Europe, the demise of moral structure across Europe has so weakened the culture that Classically Liberal ideals are being crushed by the confluence of Progressive Collectivism(the Left) in alliance with Islamic-Fascist (the Islamists not the Muslims-there is a difference see Bernard Lewis)

After reading Mark Steyn's "America Alone" and his remaks on demographic, Melanie Phillips(her reecnt "NAtional Suicide' article was terrific), Oriana Fallaci among many rational pragmatists while at the same time observing daily the twisted government control of the EU I have come to a concluction that to not conserve certain social conservative principle over the next two decades America will find herself in an impossible situation where she will not be able to defend herself or to raise herself out of the impending poverty boom.

America needs birth in order to grow, growth needs structure to survive and in order to survive, survival needs a moral compass.

Tearing down the yin-yang family unit eliminates stucture and without structure, survival becomes barbarism which will ultimatley move us from the Age of Enlightenment back to the Dark Ages.

I have lived in Moscow, Russia (1991) and have seen the consequences of Collectivism crushing the human spirit; America must Conserve her traditions which afforded her opportunity to thrive in prosperity.

All three elements of Conservatism compliment one another so we should try to conserve the best elements as much as possible and for as long as possible.

WF Buckley's "Yell Stop!" has deep meaning for me now.

When 9/11 happened I realized my narcissitic life could no longer fit the reality I faced; I was forced to change.

The end of my life is not as important to me now as is the importance of the birth of the next life.

Bascially, after 9/11, I finally entered adulthood.

I wish I afforded an editor who would correct my mistakes; dreadful problem I have previewing.