The most important feature of contemporary conservatism isn’t distrust of government, or belief in free markets, or dislike of taxes, or devotion to a large military. It’s hatred of liberals. Much of the time that hatred manifests itself in ways that are relatively harmless, like Rick Santorum cursing out a New York Times reporter (the media are all liberals, don’t forget) and then celebrating his courage for having done so (“If you haven’t cursed out a New York Times reporter during the course of a campaign, you’re not really a real Republican, is the way I look at it,” he said). But at other times, the conservative hatred of liberals is manifested in far uglier ways, and this is one such case. When they saw liberal outrage at Trayvon Martin’s killing, some (not all, but no small number either) conservatives just couldn’t keep silent. If liberals think this was a terrible thing, then they are just going to decide that it wasn’t. And trying to assassinate Martin’s character was about the only way they could think to fight back.Posted by Stephen Silver at March 28, 2012 02:17 PM