By Matt Holdridge
This is a bit of an old article but in the midst of all this distressing news, I thought it would be nice to entertain something more lighthearted, intriguing, and wholesome that speaks to many of us in our movement.
From NPR (Read more and listen to the segment here):
What is a Crunchy Conservative?
At a time when the Republican Party seems to be fracturing from within, commentator Rod Dreher says it’s time for the GOP to return to its roots. And he thinks conservatives could find inspiration from fellow Republicans who embrace a counter-cultural yet traditional conservative lifestyle — what Dreher dubs “Crunchy Cons.”
“Crunchy cons prefer old houses and mom-and-pop shops to McMansions and strip malls…. Many of us homeschool our kids, and cheerfully embrace nonconformity. I read Edmund Burke and wear Birkenstock sandals. Go figure.”
This is from Chapter One of Rod Dreher’s book, Crunchy Cons.
A few summers ago, in the National Review offices on the east side of Manhattan, I told my editor that I was leaving work early so I could pick up my family’s weekly delivery of fruits and vegetables from the neighborhood organic food co-op to which we belonged.
“Ewww, that’s so lefty,” she said, and made the kind of face I’d have expected if I’d informed her I was headed off to hear Peter, Paul and Mary warble at a fund-raiser for cross-dressing El Salvadoran hemp farmers.
Lefty? Moi? But on the subway home to Brooklyn, I had to admit she was right.
A taste for organic vegetables is a left-wing cliche, and here I was, a writer for the premier conservative political magazine in the country, leaving my post on the front lines to consort with the liberals in my neighborhood as I filled my rucksack with the most beautiful and delicious broccoli, carrots, greens, and whatnot in the city. What’s up with that?
…We were no doubt responding to the just-picked freshness of the produce, not its organic status, but no matter. At some point, I started hearing more about the kind of lives the farmers who supplied us were living, and the values of simplicity, community, and self-reliance they honored. In all candor, these people were probably to the left of Ralph Nader, but they reminded me of the kind of older farmers and gardeners I grew up around in rural southern Louisiana–deeply conservative folks whose last Democratic presidential vote likely went to JFK.
In these times of uncertainty, it seems that “the values of simplicity, community, and self-reliance” may be our saving grace.
You can also listen to a lecture by Mr. Dreher on the subject here.