On Crunchy-Conservatives
I was relieved to have Jonah Goldberg pipe in on crunchy-conservativism, as he articulated my thoughts much better than I could have done. My first impression after reading Rod's original article was that he was completely out of touch, perhaps due to living on Long Island, with the broad swath of American conservatism. My second thought was that perhaps it was I who was totally at odds with reality. Then Jonah wrote his column, validating my reaction. Anyway, many of the descriptions of crunchy-cons conform perfectly to what I perceive is the media's archetypal conservative. Many of the alleged irregularties are quite regular. Take the Buck family, introduced below, for example. It's hard for me to believe that most Americans would be surprised to learn that there are conservatives among those who grew up on small farms "drinking milk straight from the cow". Adding that the Buck parents limited their kids' exposure to Three's Company, MTV, and KISS doesn't make their admission that they're conservative a shocker either.

When Rod announced that he was coming to the Washington area to research and write his book, he invited crunchy-cons to contact him for possible interviews. I think we're what he's broadly looking for: only a 13" television (no cable either, and the antenna's even broken); tons of books on the shelves, over the shelves, and flowing off the shelves; a completely stripped model car; a belief that our culture is far too materialistic; and I take the Metro to my firm even though most people drive. To top it off, Grape Nuts is my cereal of choice. (Though I soak them in milk for 5-6 minutes to spare my gums). Still, no one who spent an hour in our home would express dismay to find out that I'm a pro-lifer and an all-the-way-down-the-ballot Republican.

Maybe it's because I don't eat my Grape Nuts right out of the box. Or maybe it's the "Smile, your mom chose life!" sign in the car window.