The price of admission of course, is renunciation of one's American-ness, and the embrace of anti-capitalism. Once paid, you get all sorts of peer-group accolades, and a tremendous sense of BELONGING. Unlike the conservative camp, which is composed of individuals, liberals are TRIBAL, replete with all the trappings of primitive tribalism; ceremony, mythology, and powerful symbolism all play a role in maintenance of the tribe's ideological and psychological underpinnings. They are CONNECTED by their own embrace of victimhood, or that of others, and the narcissistic dopamine rush such an embrace provides.
I cannot deny the author's assertion that being a liberal fills certain inner voids. This is why young people succumb to liberalism's allure in such great magnitude.
When I began to question liberal tenets openly, I found out how quickly they will dispense with you. This is a very revealing defense mechanism. REASON is like kryptonite to them, try to inject it, and they will toss you with dispatch.
The "clique" mentality. Meanwhile they also assert they love diversity and respect and honor persons of all individuality. But of course, they mean, anything but that. Unless it involves "physical differences" like skin color, disability, ethnic birth differences, economic class -- But even that is not true, ultimately if you are male of any of the "classifications of acceptance" into the clique of Liberal "oneness".