Poppa bar Abba: You are very lucky to live in a community with an enormous Jewish population so that you may live your life only associating with people who are as frum as you are.
I live in a much smaller Jewish community where on many occasions all of the Rabbis do stand together as a united front. They all sit together in a group called the Council of Rabbis. They occasionally attend each other shul’s for lectures, etc. In the city that I live in the only 2 kosher bakeries in town (certified by the OU) are open on Shabbat, the only certified kosher fishmarket also carries shellfish. In NY these things would never happen but in the “outposts” people adapt. In fact, most of the shuls in this city are located in the area where most of the Jews used to live. In the area that they live in now there are only 2 shuls – one conservative and one orthodox. The ortho shul does not have a daily minyan, so all types of Jews attend my shul for yahrzeiten. I don’t know how you might live your life if you lived in a community like I do – do you? Don’t tell me that I don’t respect your halacha or your lifestyle – I do and I admire you for it. I just ask that you respect the way that I choose to live my life, as well. After all, if there were no conservative shuls a great number of those people would choose no Judaism at all rather than a frum lifestyle – then they would be lost forever. My personal view is (as a religious conservative Jew) that my daily attendance at shul and ongoing Torah study makes me as good a Jew as many orthodox and better than a lot because, after all, a good number who identify themselves as orthodox are what we call “3 day a year Jews”. So, is it better to go 3 times a year and call yourself orthodox or be there every Shabbat and Yomtov and call yourself conservative? It is a rhetorical question because people will do what is most comfortable for them.