Mitch - I'm saving my thoughts on this mostly for next week. But you might at least leave some room for the possibility that people read Rod as proposing a philosophy, or a political or religious program not because they misunderstand Rod, but because Rod often wants to have it both ways. He cites these grand intellectual traditions and thinkers, constructs intellectual cathedrals and when people try to critique Crunchy Conservatism on the merits, Rod — and you — retreat into this "Hey, it's just a sensibility" defense.
Well, the relentless invidious comparisons between "mainstream conservatives" and Crunchy Conservatives in which the CCs come out as noble and good while mainstreamers fit Rod's strawman stereotypes certainly amount to something more than a "sensibility." Or at least they must be read that way if we're going to have an argument about any of this. Otherwise, the entire enterprise boils down to a debate about Rod's feelings and whether or not they are the yardstick of political and moral virtue. And I can tell you right now, they aren't.
