Meet the Crunchy Conservatives

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But most crunchy cons are different from bobos (David Brooks term for culturally elite “bourgeois bohemians”), in part because of their ideas about family.

Many religious crunchy cons have large families because they believe large families are a positive good. This usually means the mother, who is often highly educated, forgoes a career to stay home with the children—and possibly even homeschools them. Kim Anderson (not her real name) lives with her petroleum-engineer husband and their eight homeschooled children in Midland, Texas, President Bush’s hometown. Although she has a degree in engineering and knows that if she had had fewer children and had gone to work, her family could enjoy a much higher material standard of living, she says she feels like her kids are getting a real childhood.

Anderson says, “It’s amazing to me to see parents who have money and who think they’re conservative abandon their children to the culture and then turn around and express shock at what the culture does to their children.” Anderson asked that her real name not be used in this article because she’s afraid of antagonizing her neighbors. “We’re not trying to show anybody that we’re better than them. We’re just doing what we feel like we have to do for our family.”

Most crunchy cons are somewhat uneasy being fully open with both right-wing and left-wing friends. Some say they avoid talking about politics with liberal friends because sooner or later someone will say, “How could a nice fellow like you be such a fascist?” Similarly, to discuss the case for regulating sprawl or the deep pleasures of Humboldt Fog cheese around many conservatives is to set yourself up for knee-jerk mockery. Crunchy cons simply wish their fellow Republicans would show tolerance for diversity within their own ranks.

“I don’t want a McExistence bought in a strip mall and a mega-mart, but that doesn’t mean I disparage those who like the comfort and regularity of suburbia. The problem is that many GOPers view anything not embraced by the GOP mainstream as suspect,” says Kerry Hardy, 33, a D.C. libertarian.

And maybe, just maybe, seeing the difference crunchy conservatism makes in the quality of family life will make mainstream conservatives wonder what they’re missing. One hears more and more of families, even those in which both parents work, who have turned off the television and rediscovered the pleasures of reading—and of one another. “Most people never stop and think about their lifestyle,” says Kim Anderson. “I don’t know that some of the choices we’ve made are the only way people should live. But have they ever considered them? Look, we’re not carrying signs for our cause; we’re too busy living our lives. People can see the results and judge for themselves. They can do like we did: read books, talk to people who have gone before who have good kids and who have kept the faith, and say, ‘Hey, we want to be like that. How’d you do it?’ ”

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