Vanity Question for the FR Community: Is the Tea Party More Conservative or Libertarian to You?

[therightliveswithus]

I wanted to ask this considering all of the primaries this year. Do we consider the Tea Party to be more of a pure conservative movement, a nascent libertarian movement, or something else?

[Paladin2]

Pro Constitution.

[9YearLurker]

You could draw a Venn diagram, and the tea party would be that area at which the conservative and libertarian circles intersect.

[Grunthor]

TEA party (imo) is the Libertarian Party w/o the dope and dove problem.

[clamper1797]

Absolutely conservative

[clamper1797]

Absolutely conservative

[Vaquero]

Call it what you will, as long as they are strict constructionist on the constitution is all I am concerned with.

[no-to-illegals]

The People’s movement...imho

[AngryJawa]

You could draw a Venn diagram, and the tea party would be that area at which the conservative and libertarian circles intersect.

This.

[Doulos1]

Well put, couldn’t have said it better!

[ClearCase_guy]

I think that's accurate. I see the Tea party as primarily concerned with fiscal policy: tax us less, spend less.

It tries (as far as I can see) to avoid the divisive social issues (pro-life or pro-drug) which can divide Conservatives and Libertarians. Both sides ought to be able to unite on the idea of smaller government.

[UB355]

Core Values are

Fiscal responsibility
Constitutionally Limited Government
Free Markets

Thus More Conservative

[Grunthor]

thank you

[counterpunch]

It is both. It is narrowly focused and occupies the sphere where conservativism and libertarianism overlap, and nothing else. It does not wade into the areas where they disagree. This is a major factor to why it has been such a successful popular movement.

[oneamericanvoice]

As in any movement, there are various degrees, various factions. There are some that are more Conservative and others that are libertarian. Overall I would say that most of the factions in the movement seem more Conservative.

[Pollster1]

When the deficit is $1.5T, there isn’t a whole lot of difference. Beyond the national emergency posed by Obama and Pelosi, we’ll have time to discuss those issues later. For now, the overriding issue is fiscal responsibility.

[pallis]

The Tea Party is a collection of Americans who can see the destruction liberals are doing to America. They can distinguish between candidates with America’s best interest in mind, candidates who respect the Constitution and candidates who will rollover for the left.

[Venturer]

The Tea Party is people. If they try to turn it into anything else it will die.

leave it alone do not try to organise it.

Let the hair go with the hide.

[Darkwolf377]

You could draw a Venn diagram, and the tea party would be that area at which the conservative and libertarian circles intersect.

Man, that's the best answer to this question I've seen yet.

[NormsRevenge]

Welcome to FR.

Conservative

but you will see a fair share of expression of other political ideologies and their advocates.