This &quot;seems&quot; like an American phenomenon. 
As a liberal, I can have a fully formed debate with a British Conservative, A Canadian conservative, a European conservative (sans latent Nazism), however the dominant American conservative seems to be operating on a completely different plain and set of assumptions. I find it extremely difficult to relate to and debate the American conservative. In general, if an american &lt;insert institution here&gt; (college, newspaper etc.) seems uber-liberal in America, it is just run-of-the-mill centrist in most other countries. Not because of any stated or unstated institutional biases, but simply because its been labelled so by a relentless, uncompromising, hyper-focussed and hugely disciplined conservative media looking for easy answers.<p>P.S: Also the predilection to openly say &quot;Compromise is impossible&quot;, esp behind the scenes, also seems to be a unique attribute of the American Conservative.