That said, he has officially flipped his lid. Dreher used to be a bona fide conservative-- ideas differ, of course, and I thought some of Dreher's were a little out there, but that was alright. I don't insist on ideological orthodoxy (can I say homodoxy?). He's drifted as the years have passed-- I first noticed the drift after the publication of his book Crunchy Cons, which I agreed with in some places and disagreed with in others.
This came out today-- hence my assertion that Dreher has lost it:
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 caretakers of the natural world and its resources. At best, the religious right stood ineffectively against these trends. At worst, we preached them, mistaking consumerism for conservatism.
Uh-huh . Because some people made poor use of their freedom, I have to much of it. Because some churches confused and conflated policy and doctrine, I, your standard American citizen, have too much liberty. Some people made choices that Mr. Dreher considers wrong-- strip individual freedom from all!
Unless Dreher is willing to punish this "excessive freedom" with jail (that is what is generally done to take away freedom in this country), he needs to rethink this idea. And if he is willing to take away people's freedom...
There has been a lot of discussion around the conservative blogosphere lately about booting various people out of the conservative tent-- Kathleen Parker, Christopher Buckley, etc. But there are some people, perhaps including Dreher, who are far more deserving of it.
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