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."

[cyborg]

I've been doing some research into sustainable living and that's one of the mags I picked up. It's fascinating!

[writmeister]

Even though I have eaten at the Moosewood Restaurant twice and have often used their cookbooks, I never thought of myself as a right-wing hippie.

OTOH, I have not shaved yet today. So, maybe, I am unconsciously going hippie?

[Ronaldus Magnus]

I just hope they didn't keep reading to Ezekiel 4:12.

I don't know, those stinky barley loaves might just be preferable to a breakfast cereal with beans, lentils, and millet!

Ezekiel 4:9 "Again, take wheat and barley, and beans and lentils, and millet and spelt; put them in a single vessel and make bread out of them."

Ezekiel 4:12 "For your food you must bake barley loaves over human excrement in their sight, said the LORD."

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

My republican father gardened organically. He subscribed to "Organic Gardening." He used their methods and got good results. You could always hear him grumbling about the Dxxm socialist Rodale who published the magazine. Neither of us wore/wears birkenstocks (Red Wing, Sorels, or Johnston Murphy depending on whether you were gardening, working shoveling, or attending your funeral.

(My sister in Wisconsin is named Diane, but I know that its not you...She wouldn't have a freezer full of venison...too bad!)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"...and they've got some great ideas about using old tires for planters."

Not to horn in, but that's how I raise potatoes because I have rather clay-ish soil. Works slick. Start with one tire, fill it with dirt and plant your spuds. As the plant grows, add a tire and more dirt to cover up the stems. The more of the stem you cover, the more taters will grow.

When it's time to harvest, let the kids push the whole thing over and go digging for Yukon Golds. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

No, it's not me, Pete...but nice to meet you, anyway, LOL!

I agree that the Rodale folks are pretty leftist. They've totally destroyed OG magazine...a few years back they split it into a real glossy piece of cr@p, and added a yuppified "Organic Home" magazine, too. I don't think either survived the transition by Maria Rodale. Mike McGrath always cracked me up; not sure where he landed.

I have my OG Composting Pin. I wear it proudly as I turn my four compost bins. ;)

[Gabz]

I've never tried planting taters...always seemed like too danged much work to me...especially when I livedin Delaware and every other farm was a tater farm.

I have enough things I'm experimenting with for the first time this year - I don't think I'm going to complicate things any further.

The hubby and I just came in from marking off the 8,000 square feet we're going to use, not including the strawberry patch. Which is going in a different area. And the raspberries are in another area altogether also.

[kalee]

I'm a crunchy. Moosewood is on my bookshelf and organic milk, eggs, cheese etc in my fridge. No Birkenstocks for me but my even crunchier daughter wears them. She bought hers in Germany and she loves them!

[kanawa]

And he owned a pit bull ;~)

[BobS]

I saw the Chambers Brothers perform it. Good concert well done at the Fillmore East. My subconscious guided me home that night. All I remember is waking up the next day when the sun was setting on my bed. My clothes and hair smelled like a pot and beer. And my eyes were red. I assume I had a good time in NY.

[Horatio Gates]

See, the idea that one can "tell" by looking at someone is just wrong. Some people think they can "look" at a person and immediately know: he is right or he is left. But, really, one can't tell.

I wholeheartedly agree but this guy at the GOP picnic...lets just say he was outside the box 8>) I should have had a camera. I've even run into some homeless guys living under tarps that have been surprisingly conservative

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Good to meet you!

I miss the Wisconsin summers. Never had to spend a winter there, but an "L" platform in Chicago has similar charms.
Out in Kansas now.

I also compost. If it grows in the yard and I have to cut it it goes to compost (except logs and indestructable sweet gum "balls"). I cant understand packing it all in plastic bags and sending it to the dump, then going out and buying plastic bags full of composted stuff or peat to put on your yard or garden. Just save it and wait 1 to 2 years.

[TXBSAFH]

Tedddy Roosevelt is my favorite president.

[therut]

This whole idea reminds me of the country song
"I was Country before Country was Cool". These people think they have found something new. They haven't. To them it is a luxery, a quirkey way to live. I understand why they like it but I find it funny that they somehow think they are living a New lifestyle. It is one alot of people have lived for years. We just never considered ourselves a trend or Crunchy Conservative. We were just Us. I was crunchey before crunchey was cool.

[freepatriot32]

I thought Michael Moore was doing that one!

Yeah well granted he has had a big head start on it but i should catch and overtake him by the end ofthe year. btw im about a third of the size of mikey. you would not believe the amount of calories you can burn waving your finger in front of a computer monitor and yelling profusley usually on the drug and gun threads :-)

[freepatriot32]

I would need a junk yard full of them to provide me with enough planters for what I'm growing :)

Woah dude sounds like a big stash man! Just dont bogart :-D

[Gabz]

Woah dude sounds like a big stash man! Just dont bogart :-D

ROFL!!!!!!!!!!

The man is more than welcome to come check out my stash.......tomatoes, peppers and eggplant may all contain nicotine - but last I heard they were all legal to grow :) (so is tobacco - those seeds get started tomorrow)

[freepatriot32]

Hey I know what you mean man keep it on the down low for the lurkers thats cool. Just let me know when the *cough*"Eggplants"*cough* are ready for harvest I got a shoebox full of small unmarked bills here ready to go when they are.:-)

[freepatriot32]

for all the humour impaired WOdies me and gabz are kidding at least until the statute of limitations run out :-p

[Gabz]

You're a piece of work!!!!!!