Why do I voluntarily send in my money to support programming that mostly irritates me? Do I secretly like the dichotomy, sort of like the patient, besieged Republican dad listening with fond resignation to his children around the dinner table calling him a fascist for eating meat and threatening to get tattoos?

Or is it because, as a liberal friend of mine said the other day, "maybe deep down, you're actually not a Republican, and there's something about NPR's liberalism that you find attractive."