An engaging piece in which Douthat looks the "theocon" label in the face – and embraces it.
Take that, Andrew Sullivan!
Political movements are often labeled by their enemies. "Neoconservative" was an insult Michael Harrington hurled at Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol during their journey rightward; "queer" was a slur before it became a badge of empowerment (and impenetrable academy theory). So perhaps it’s time for religious conservatives to stop complaining about the term "theoconservative"–coined by Jacob Heilbrunn in 1996 and popularized by Andrew Sullivan, among others–and accept it with a wink and a grin, as the kind of backhanded compliment that any successful movement earns from its opponents.
This a good time for such considerations, because the last, limping years of the Bush administration find religious conservatives in a position of unusual strength–flush from victory in the Roberts and Alito confirmation battles; relatively untainted by the stumbling and scandals afflicting the GOP; and stronger, in numbers and credibility, than most of their rivals for control of the party. "National greatness conservatism" has foundered, at least temporarily, on the rocks of Iraq, while the starve-the-beast right looks in the mirror and finds the beast staring back, wearing Jack Abramoff’s fedora. Which means that for the moment, the closest thing to a credible public philosophy the GOP has to offer emanates from the once-unlikely alliance of evangelicals and Catholics, and their God-infused politics of social reform.
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