Here's an interesting item I found the other day.  Heather McDonald is a fairly prominent conservative intellectual who finds herself disquieted by the Right's abandonment of conservative skeptics:

Skeptical conservaties - one of the Right's less celebrated subcultures - are conservatives because of their skepticism, not in spite of it.  They ground their ideas in rational thinking and (nonreligious) moral argument.  And the conservative movement is crippling itself by leaning too heavily on religion to the exclusion of these tempermentally compatible allies.

McDonald's original essay reminds me of the Left's own discomfort with the non-religious.  As distressing as it is to can often be to be a liberal atheist, I can't imagine the horror, and sheer disgust, that must be felt by conservative atheists.  Reading McDonald's piece, in a way, comforts me- not everyone on the other side has completely lost their minds.  It also makes me curious to discuss politics with conservatives who base their politics on reason rather religion.  I think that the results would be fascinating.

Razib at Gene Expression has been following the debate about Heather McDonald's original piece, and her follow up, among conservatives at National Review Online.   From a pure PoliSci vantage point, it's worth checking out.

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