Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher *

A look at a trend among conservatives today where they are beginning to embrace some values that have typically held by liberals. This is not just a discussion between Democrats and Republicans. "Crunchy Cons" has to do with Con = Conservative in voting and normal day to day discussions. "Crunchy" = like earthy-crunchy types. You know folk that wear birkenstocks, buy organic and probably buy a hybrid car. The Manifesto of the Crunchy Con is:
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."