Espouse liberal politics long enough — more equitable distribution of wealth, workers’ rights, racial equality, reproductive choice, social spending, that sort of thing — and sooner or later some steely-eyed conservative will accuse you of being mushy-minded or sentimental.

Sometimes, conservatives roll their eyes at your breathtaking naïveté and your astonishing inability to grasp “how the real world works” and simply say, as someone did to me recently, “puh-leeze.”

When you’re arguing that tax breaks for large, profitable corporations are more important than, say, improved education for poor children, it helps, I suppose, to dismiss any naysayers as bleeding hearts, reacting from pure emotion rather than intellect.

All of which makes the conservative approach to what The Daily Show has come to call “Operation Enduring Coverage” so fascinating. Swept away on a tide of flag-waving and God-Bless-America sentiment, it’s conservatives who no longer seem to be living in the real world. Instead, they’ve shut down any critical faculties and embraced a Norman Rockwell view of the U.S. that’s as dewy eyed and mushy minded and sentimental as it is dangerous. The same people who oppose gun control and socialized medicine — though both would save thousands of American lives each year — are now waxing philosophical about the sanctity of life, the importance of community and the resiliency of the human spirit.

War seems to have that effect on the right. It transforms hardened so-called realists into big, syrupy, unquestioning patriots.

While voices of dissent have been attacked, with two U.S. writers famously getting fired for criticizing U.S. President George W. Bush, conservative pundits who would otherwise advocate for individual rights and rail against big, intrusive government are now whole-heartedly supporting the Bush administration in its crackdown on terrorism.

As John Ibbitson opined in a recent Globe and Mail column headlined “The War On Terrorism: In Ashcroft We Trust:”

“The measures taken by the Bush administration to detain illegal aliens, to expand the powers of the police, to encourage people to snitch on each other and to subject non-citizens charged with terrorist crimes to military tribunals are dangerous and demeaning. And they deserve our support.”

If that weren’t enough, I recently appeared on a television panel to discuss the newsmakers of the year. Both Bush and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani were praised by the hosts and another, conservative, panellist for transforming themselves in the aftermath of September 11 from political jokes into statesmen.

Now, not to deny for one moment the horror of the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the tremendous burden upon both politicians, I still had to ask: But didn’t they just do their jobs? Thousands of innocent people were killed in a stunning, terrifying attack. I mean, the nation’s support was a given.

And considering the numbers of handlers and advisers that surround those two, Bush and Giuliani would have to have been the worst kind of bumblers and morons not to rise to the challenge. They denounced terrorists and praised rescue workers, called for support and prayers, and promised revenge. In short, they did what was expected and what any politician would have done. At the risk of sounding mean-spirited, I suggested that, perhaps, it was the events, and not the men, that were extraordinary.

Well, from the looks I got, you’d have thought I’d drowned a kitten on live television, for suggesting that a U.S. politician was less than destined for sainthood. (Though I had to wonder that, if it had been president Al Gore responding to the crisis, would he be enjoying the same kind of unquestioning support as Bush is?)

Then, one of the hosts suggested that in light of the terrorist attacks and his own battle with cancer, Giuliani really should be cut some slack by his critics. The other panellist nodded in agreement. I felt like the Grinch, himself — me, the soft-touch, feminist, tree hugger — when I gently suggested that victimhood isn’t a virtue in and of itself and that experiencing tragedy doesn’t absolve a person, particularly a politician, for his actions.

As the media and politicians keep reminding us, everything has changed since September 11. A nation that was the global bully, now understands the horrible devastation of being a victim. A president who barely got elected now has a skyrocketing approval rating. And the very folks who once dismissed sentiment are now blindly ruled by it.