News of B.J. Lawson’s victory in North Carolina is very encouraging indeed — and what a margin! Lawson is a sterling (or maybe, as a nod to monetary issues, I should say auric) Ron Paul Republican and antiwar conservative. He faces an uphill battle in the Fall against incumbent Democrat David Price, who has been in office for over 20 years (with a one-term interregnum in after the ’94 elections). But his win shows that a consistent small-government ethic and responsible foreign-policy views can still prevail in today’s GOP. Walter Jones’s victory provides evidence of that as well and is all the more impressive given the establishment support his opponent received. A number of Beltway neocons had hoped to make an example out of Jones. Instead, he’s become an example of how traditional conservatives can win.

The next test of the Old Right resurgence, if I may hopefully call it that, is coming on June 10, when Virginia holds its congressional primaries. One candidate to watch is Amit Singh, who is running for the party’s nomination in the 8th district to take on Jim Moran in November. Singh is a Ron Paul-inspired Republican, but there’s also a more general story here of insurgent conservatives in Virginia taking on the rather plodding party establishment. There’s a confluence of conservatives of several kinds who have all had it with the feckless GOP old guard. That’s true not only in Virginia but nationwide: conservative discontent with the House Republican leadership is boiling over (you can tell because Newt Gingrich, ever the opportunist, is trying to take advantage of it), while about a quarter of Republicans in the Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina primaries voted against John McCain.

This is a party that has been on the wrong track for quite a while, but which is starting to show signs — in North Carolina and elsewhere — of turning over a new leaf.

Another encouraging development: Ron Paul’s new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto is going to be at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list next week. That sound you hear is Bill Kristol choking on his foie gras…