Good question.

Perhaps:

Conservatives operate under the assumption that _they have things pretty much figured out_. They've got the right values, the right economic system, the right way of dealing with those shiftless fill-in-the-blanks, the right way of thinking about human history.

Someone who thinks like this could well feel offended, alarmed, and threatened by people who not only _have_ a different point of view, but who acknowledge and _value_ a diversity of viewpoints.

FWIW, Stefan might be more accurate than he knows. Consider, for example, the overwhelming sense of self-righteousness (I want to say smugness) that the right posseses. This maniests itself in various forms of fundamentalism, only some of which have to do with religion.

BY that standard, the left represents a threat that can perhaps best be encompased by the word "infidel".