Douthat joins the closing of the conservative mind debate:
(On a purely ideological level, I bet that Mickey Kaus has more in common with the head of the California teacher’s union than an Ayn Randian “right-winger” has in common with a Tocquevillian or Catholic “right-winger.”) But paradoxically, the right’s ideological diversity is often what breeds intellectual conformity. It’s precisely because American conservatism represents a motley assortment of political tendencies united primarily by their opposition to liberalism that conservatives are often too quick to put their (legitimate, important and worth-debating) differences aside in the quest to slay the liberal dragon.