Crunchy Cons

Short for "crunchy" conservative, the term refers to a new wave of conservatism that is not doctrinaire, can carry on a coherent conversation with just about anyone (of whatever political stripe) who can also carry on a coherent conversation, can tolerate the lives of people whose moral compass differs from their own but who recognize the grave dangers of totalitarianism of any political stripe and the moral and political blindness of virtually every form of collectivism.

Curiously, there are so many different kinds of folks that can be described as "crunchy con" it's amazing that they do, indeed, tolerate each other and warm up to arguing with each other about their differences.

In many ways, crunchy cons might properly be described as "progressive", except they generally value the dignity of human life, appreciate freedom of thought and expression, don't feel threatened (necessarily) by people who disagree with them, appreciate the value of private enterprise, incline to actual (as opposed to fake) libertarianism and believe in community values and covenant love (albeit, in many instances, outside of [what they see as] the confines of natural law and biblical teaching).

The classic book on this phenomenon was written by Rod Dreher and published in early 2006.

From my paleo-conservative perspective, it strikes me as easier to have an intelligent conversation with a "crunchy con" than with a "neocon", which is another offshoot of progressivism.