For those of you who aren’t ROFTERS (Readers of First Things) already then you should be. It is a fantastic monthly magazine of conservative thought largely on religious issues and where those intersect with politics. There is a particularly interesting article in this month’s addition, which you can read online here.

The “New Fusionism” as laid out by Joseph Bottum, the editor of First Things (whose abbreviation FT always makes me think of the salmon colored paper the Financial Times, but I digress…) lays out an argument that what is now holding the centre-right coalition together is not a hatred of islamic extremism (witness the paleocons) but rather the love for Western Society and tradition, as particularly expressed through the pro-life and anti-terrorist wings of the movement. I think Mr. Bottum places a little too much pressure on the cohesiveness of this alliance, but our own Gary Livacari is probably the epitome of this new conservative movement. Gary is an avowed neo-con and a solid pro-lifer. While I am both for tracking down and knocking off every terrorist we can find, and very against the killing of babies, I probably fall in the slightly different traditionalist camp that while supportive of the war in Iraq is concerned about our ability to create democratic socities abroad. But again I digress… Anyway the article is well worth a read in laying out the new geography of the post-communist, post-9/11 conservative movement.