Crunchy Cons: A Book Review

Reflections on: 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 by Rod Dreher

This past month, I finished reading Crunchy Cons (link in the sidebar) by Rod Dreher, journalist for the Dallas Morning News. The author writes from a unique perspective in hopes, I believe, of documenting and articulating the feelings many of us have about politics as it relates to the culture. Mr. Dreher describes his book as a "handbook of the resistance." Resisting modernity...materialism, rejection of traditional values, instant gratification.

For me, Crunchy Cons was a pleasurable read, simply because it affirmed that there are many across America who are quietly living by the ideals laid out by the author and shared by many I know. People who are conservatives, but feel all but over-looked by the Republican (so-called, Conservative) party. People who are interested in true conservatism, which means conservators of community, beauty, and family. Or as the godfather of conservatism, Russell Kirk, described it, conservators of "the permanent things."

We are group who are generally spiritually centered and guided by our traditional religious faith. We cannot embrace the "Party of Greed" nor the "Party of Lust." The "crunchy conservative" is guided by traditional morals and ancient truths and seeks to live an authentic and, as Mr. Dreher describes, "sacramental" life. The essence of his book can be summarized with this "Crunchy Con Manifesto" drafted by the author:

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship, especially of the natural world, is not fundamentally conservative.

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency.

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

9. We share Russell Kirk's conviction that "the institution most essential to conserve is the family."


Crunchy Cons resonated well with this humble reader. Despite its somewhat elitist air, the author clearly articulates the true and substantive definition of Conservatism. He illustrates how conservatives across America are living the "hippie Republican" lifestyle as agrarians, urbanites, and everywhere between. It didn't hurt that the author praised my favorite architect, Sarah Susanka and the great Slow Food Movement, among other things. All in all, I give this book a hearty recommendation.