Just finished Andrew Sullivan's "The Conservative Soul"

And I strongly recommend it.



I am a big fan of Andrew Sullivan's blog, and actually expected this book to have a similar feel--insightful and often clever political analysis, commentary, and editorializing. Instead, this book goes into political philosophy of theoconservative fundamentalists who have extreme influence in today's Republican party and then explains his own views and philosophy (with much greater effect, of course). Very readable, the book also touched on important moment's in Sullivan's life and how we has grown over the years.

Here is a representative paragraph, on nothing less than the U.S. Constitution:

A constitution does something quite miraculous in human affairs, and few constitutions have been as miraculous as America's. What it does in the brutal world of competing human interest and opinions is to change the subject. Instead of focusing on what a polity is for, what meaning it is supposed to represent, which virtues it is supposed to inculcate, a constitution restricts itself to pure procedure. It doesn't tell us what purpose to give our own country or what purpose to give ourselves. It merely says what the state cannot do, and leaves the rest to us. It is a supremely negative piece of positive action. Instead of instructing us what we should do with our lives, it restricts itself to telling us how we do it.