crunchiness and conservatism

Last night I had a dear friend come over, and we talked about our mutual crunchiness, and our mutual conservatism. I'd kind of felt alone in being both, but my friend had a really good point:

Conservatism is all about taking responsibility for yourself. So is crunchiness. Both of those philosophies are about taking responsibility for your body, your health.

Conservatism is also the philosophy that everything is best local--same as crunchiness.

Anyway. I thought that was a great point. I no longer feel quite as weird being a cloth-diapering, breastfeeding, bedsharing, babywearing, former-vegan conservative. All of those things go hand in hand with being responsible, staying local, and being a good steward of the earth.