Conservatives vs. liberals could be a subject for full course of study.

But this clip of Penn Gillette agonizing over a furious verbal attack on him by Tommy Smothers offers an interesting illustration. Smothers was enraged at Gillette for appearing on the Glenn Beck show.

The shorthand about the political divide has been this:

• conservatives view liberals as stupid
• liberals view conservatives as evil

I don’t think liberals are stupid. Academia is rife with liberals. That so many liberals are indeed smart and educated is what makes their political views so darn fascinating to ponder. For example, how could anyone still believe in collectivism? Or the UN?

But I do think many, many liberals regard conservatives as selfish — that’s because we favor market forces and meritocracy over government meddling in outcomes. They take this as not caring.

And many liberals do regard conservatives are evil, not just wrong. This makes their politics (in their minds) a righteous moral crusade that fulfills a fundamental psychological void.

As a conservative, I don’t think liberals are evil, and on some social issues, I tilt more liberal than conservative.

But liberals have caused great harm with their noble intentions — harm to millions of Africans who’ve died unnecessarily from malaria. Harm to millions of the American underclass who’ve been stunted by their welfare policies. Harm to world peace for believing that evil can be sweet talked.

Lately, I think of liberals as termites — creatures that incessantly nibble away at our fundamental rights, one seemingly righteous cause at a time. They are never happy, never sated. Which makes living with them so tiresome.