That's quite a throwback, but I wonder. I'm not sure if it's my protestant upbringing, but I just can't understand these people the same way I can sorta-kinda grok conservative evangelicals. I can't figure out what he's standing on.

These reactionary Catholics are rare, but they are terrifying. I’m only half joking when I say they want to bring back the Middle Ages—including burning heretics at the stake. There aren’t that many people like that, but they are disproportionately powerful.

And Douthat is one? I guess he thought Shrub was a tool and he was playing Grand Vizier by writing speeches for the guy?

Douthat has long leaned that way, but he’s gotten noticeably more so in that last year or two. He used to make at least a few feints in the direction of Catholic social teachings and now he rarely even bothers.

At some point you get tired of making concessions and just become more of your core self. Perhaps that's a warning to religious people in general. Mind your core.