Jonah, I’ve read Rod’s remarkable book, and I have to say, like any successful polemic-manifesto, it anticipates and tries to answer many of the objections you have raised and will raise to it. Crunchiness aside, Crunchy Cons is the first popular work of our time to take up the cudgel for the Old Right and its anti-Marxist critique of capitalism — and what’s most promising and hopeful about it is that Rod does so without the repugnant anti-republican, pro-Confederate and anti-Semitic strains that properly consigned the Old Right to the ash-heap of history. That being said, Rod’s great problem is that, like any effort to find a more authentic and pure way of living, Crunchy Conservatism might become a haven for purists who adopt it because they want to live a Great Experiment — making them little different from ideological extremists of every bent. It also provides a big-tent excuse for “sanctimommy” parenting, which is not so much about raising your own kids as you see fit but more about finding other mothers and fathers wanting because they’re not as austere and controlling as you are. There’s a lot of sanctimommying over at the Crunchy Con blog. And don’t get me started on the politician Rod praises at the end of his book and for what reason. I won’t tell you who it is, Jonah. You’ll have to find out on your own and get really, really annoyed. Consider it a Crunchy Con cliffhanger!