Hippy Republican Love

One of the problems with stereotypes, I've found, is that they are occasionally true. Sometimes the white kid with the crew cut in the red Grand Am flying dangerously past everyone in traffic while waving a middle finger does turn out to have a Young Republican sticker on his bumper. And likewise, sometimes a welfare mother does turn out to blame everyone but herself while wielding a rude and righteous sense of entitlement.

But in our complicated, unpredictable world we are obliged not to judge categorically. Homo sapiens appear to come in more varieties than the taxonomy of our narrow brains can handle. And now, fresh on the heels of South Park Conservatism comes a new discovery in diversity on the Right (and they might be my favorites, I'll admit). Crunchy Cons, a new book by Rod Dreher, explores a growing segment of the GOP that rejects consumerism, embraces organic farming and generally lives "off grid" when it comes to schools, commerce, and stripmall American culture.

This new phenomenon may or may not qualify as a growing trend. Right now they seem to lack adequate political representation - since most social conservatives are also cheek-to-jowl with the traditional corporate fatcats. But the 'National Review' considers this thesis important enough that they launched a blog about Crunchy Cons.

Will the stereotypical Republicans still dominate? Certainly the environment is shifting. Right now John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are ahead of the pack of 2008 presidential contenders. But their path to the White House runs right through a dense thicket of buttoned-down evangelical conservatives who like things their farming corporate, their cultural stylings traditional and their women back there in the kitchen, ripe with child.