Moosewood Republicans [NYT re new book on gun-loving, whole foods eating, hippie Republicans]

NYT Book Review ^ | March 12, 2006 | DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

[summer]

Book review: CRUNCHY CONS
How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (or at Least the Republican Party).
By Rod Dreher.
259 pp. Crown Forum. $24.

THE upscale natural foods grocery chain Whole Foods now stocks a brand of cereal called Ezekiel 4:9. It could pass for any other gravelly, whole-grain, flour-free concoction on the shelves, but Ezekiel's box credits its inspiration to "the Holy Scriptures."

If this sounds like your kind of breakfast, you may be a crunchy con — a new species of ecologically minded, religiously orthodox and socially traditionalist conservative that Rod Dreher speaks for. If not, take the market for Ezekiel 4:9 as evidence he may be onto something.

Dreher, a writer and editor at The Dallas Morning News, argues that a growing number of people are drawn to a kind of across-the-board rejection of modernity that he considers true conservatism but that makes them look a little like "right-wing hippies." Crunchy cons disapprove of abortion rights, same-sex marriage, illegal immigrants, public schools, secular liberals and mothers who work outside the home. But they don't like Wal-Mart, McMansions, suburbs, pollution, agribusiness or processed foods, either.

...Dreher calls "Crunchy Cons" a "handbook of the resistance" ...

...Still, Dreher's survey of crunchy-con lifestyles makes a convincing case that there is a market for his brand of half-hippie traditionalism, even if it is not exactly the conservatism we know today. "There are many mansions in the American conservative house," he writes, "and some of them are old and funky and smell like a pot of organic mustard greens cooking down on the stove."

[summer]

I think some of these voters are right here on FR!

[summer]

Also -- it's funny how this article mentions GOP voters who wear Birkenstocks, while in another article in today's NYT about Birkenstock sandals, the entire slant is that no one other than liberals wear Birkenstocks!

[summer]

From article:

But Dreher's greatest passion is the devotional approach to eating and food that he considers essential to the crunchy-con way. After he spelled out his principles in a National Review Online article called "Birkenstocked Burkeans," Dreher writes, he was deluged with responses like, "We thought we were the only evangelical Christians in the world with a copy of 'The Moosewood Cookbook.' " He introduces several evangelicals who say they are organic farmers "because we're Christians." And he raves about the European Slow Food movement and about "The Supper of the Lamb," a classic 1967 cookbook and devotional by an Episcopal priest, Robert Farrar Capon.

[summer]

FYI. :)

[Agent Smith]

Just remember, Teddy Roosevelt was a Green Republican.

[Gabz]

Didn't we just have a recent discussion about just this subject? :^)

[summer]

FYI. :)

[Bulldaddy]

This whole "Crunchy Cons" subject is one of the lamest topics ever manufactured. Never has so much hot air been generated about a more meaningless topic. Everything about it - from the fundamental concepts to the very name - is a huge bore. This is the first and last time I ever intend to comment about it anywhere.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

*Waves Madly* Yep. I'm a Crunchy Con. ;)

[ocean]

It's funny how shallow liberals have to create classifications that everybody is supposed to conform to.
Could Birks just be another comfortable shoe??....Gasp!.... the horror!

[summer]

LOL...thanks for your post.

But, I disagree with you. I think it is quite an interesting topic. Most Dem posters would never imagine such voters even exist. And, I think most Dem politicians are in ther dark about these voters, too. But I always knew they were out there. So, I really enjoyed reading this article.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yes, we did. We totally qualify for Crunchy Con membership, LOL! :)

[summer]

LOL...

[freepatriot32]

sounds like some of the people on my libertarian ping list :-)Although the food part is definitely not me.I'm running a lifelong scientific experiment to see how many double cheeseburgers a human body can digest before the heart explodes violently

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[summer]

re your post #9 - ROTFLMAO! See, I knew it! And, you are not alone on this forum. Believe me, I have talked to enough posters on this forum over the years to know that!

[Sir_Humphrey]

...right-wing hippies

(Groan) Typical MSM dogma. Plenty of "right wingers" in this country but no "left wingers" Lot's of "right wing" talk radio, no "left wing" talkers. Plenty of "right wing" congressman, no "left wing" congressmen"

I could go on and on, but you get the point. Just one of the 1000+ reasons you can't trust the media.

[summer]

Well, it's the basis of this guy's book.

[summer]

Although the food part is definitely not me

Maybe that part is not you, but I can tell you this: food threads tend to get a ton of hits on this forum.

[fanfan]

I'm running a lifelong scientific experiment to see how many double cheeseburgers a human body can digest before the heart explodes violently

LOL

I thought Michael Moore was doing that one!

[summer]

LOL...actually, I heard Michael Moore is on a diet!