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June 06, 2005
NRO Doesn't Get It
Longtime NRO readers will remember the crunchy con debate from a few years back. In relation to the current trend of South Park conseratives, Kathryn Jean Lopez offered this last Friday:
"That episode reminded me why I don't like the term "South Park Conservative." It's the same reason I get annoyed at Rod Dreher's "Crunchy Con" thesis (as our friend Rod knows). Conservatives can eat organic and—shocking as it may be—can be pretty darn funny. Neither makes us anomalies. Conservatism is about ideas, but it's not a lock-step army, with dress and behavior codes. (I think Warren gets this right here.) If, in the end, "South Park Conservatives" and "Crunchy Cons" make more people realize conservatives are people too—i.e. most of red America—cool, fine. But my worry has always been these unnecessary labels and things just further ghettoize and stereotype. This goes back to why I get annoyed every time I see another "conservative beat" story by David Kirkpatrick in the NYTimes. We're not an alien species. Just cover politics, etc., and the Right will fit in in that beat.
When Lopez speaks of being "annoyed" at Dreher's premise, she's annoyed at something she doesn't understand. Dreher doesn't in favor of organic carrots just for the sake of being crunchy; he is making a conservative argument in favor of organic farming. (An argument I'm quite sympathetic to, by the way) He is saying that "crunchy con" rejection of mass culture has a conservative value. And as a red-stater he's doing all of this because in red state culture, for all its many strengths, going against the grain is frowned upon. Walk into a community center or church or diner in flyover country, a venue likely full of Bush voters, and tell them that as a conservative, you oppose corporate animal farms, prefer homeschooling and think that Maxwell House coffee tastes awful...well, you won't get an open hand shake after such a proclamation.
I hope that one day National Review will have an employee or two who is not stuck in Beltway or big-city Northeastern culture. Until then, the wide disconnect by populist Bush voters and high-minded conservative thinkers will only continue. This of us in the middle will just muddle through.
Posted by Matt at June 6, 2005 02:26 PM
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» Huh? from Sierra Faith
Matt at Stones Cry Out takes Kathryn Lopez to task for being annoyed by the ghettoization of conservatives through such terms as "Crunchy Con."
I knew I was lost by this argument when I read:
Walk into a community center or church or diner in fly... [Read More]
Tracked on June 7, 2005 09:13 AM