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Dreher: America’s Bad Because of Too Much Freedom
The Sundries Shack — A statement like this should never come from anyone calling himself a conservative. Today, the greatest threats to conservative interests come not from the Soviet Union or high taxes, but from too much individual freedom. Look around you: Americans have been poor stewards of our economic liberty, owing to cultural values that celebrate unfettered materialism. Our families and communities have fragmented, in part because we have embraced an ethic of extreme individualism. Climate change and a peak in oil production threaten our future because we have been irresponsible ...

Early Morning Swim
Firedoglake — Another exciting day on the Street! Obama's national security team has their work cut out for them. Automakers, UAW work on pitch. Uh, this seems like very bad news. I blame Mexico: Ahnold sez Kaleefornia is broke. A pardon for Toobz? Stoller on Jim Jones. Rod Dreher's advice to the GOP: double down on theocracy. Meet MTP's new moderator.

The Republicans Base
PoliGazette — Writing at USA Today, Rod Dreher confirms something that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, namely that social conservatives and Christian voters are an essential element of the Republican base and that the McCain/Palin ticket lost for reasons having little to do with deep demographic changes misidentified by pundits such as Jeffery Hart and the aforementioned Kathleen Parker. There are of course those who would like to see Christian voters marginalized as a voting force.  Democrats like the idea because it helps them win ...

Is Social Conservatism the Problem?
The American Scene — ... and Rod Dreher make the case against scapegoating social conservatives for recent Republican defeats. Though they both come from very different places — Ramesh is a rock-ribbed Reaganite and Rod is an unorthodox Aristotelian — they reach a similar conclusion. ...

The Party Of God
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Reihan responds to both Ramesh Ponnuru and Rod Dreher: Both agree that upper-middle-class soft libertarians are not the “ducks” Republicans should be hunting. I agree with both of them, but with a small caveat. Like Ramesh and Rod, I think the Republican should be the more culturally conservative party. But, as I think both of them would agree, cultural conservatism is a moving target. But this is a critical distinction, no? For Oakeshottian-Burkean conservatives, culture is always moving. For Straussian-Christianists, the ...

A Lack of Ideas Has Consequences
The Next Right — ... Perhaps more troubling, however, is the tendency for panicked overreactions from different corners of the Right, all of whom seem intent on proving that their side is blameless and that it was those bloody (insert rival group here) who let Barack Obama win. "Crunchy" conservative and frequent bete noire of the libertarians Rod Dreher writes sentences like "the greatest threats to conservative interests come not from the Soviet Union or high taxes, but from too much individual freedom", while liberal NYT op-ed columnist Charles Blow ...