This is getting good.....
Posted on 11/14/2010 3:38:40 PM PST by kristinn
A gay conservative group and some Tea Party leaders are campaigning to keep social issues off the Republican agenda.
In a letter to be released Monday, the group GOProud and leaders from groups like the Tea Party Patriots and the New American Patriots, will urge Republicans in the House and Senate to keep their focus on shrinking the government.
"On behalf of limited-government conservatives everywhere, we write to urge you and your colleagues in Washington to put forward a legislative agenda in the next Congress that reflects the principles of the Tea Party movement," they write to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell in an advance copy provided to POLITICO. "This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue."
The letter's signatories range from GOProud's co-founder and Chairman Christopher Barron — a member of a group encouraging Dick Cheney to run for president and who has been known to post images of his bare torso to Twitter — to Tea Party leaders with no particular interest in the gay rights movement.
As of Sunday evening, the letter had 17 signatories. They include tea party organizers, conservative activists and media personalities from across the country, including radio host Tammy Bruce, bloggers Bruce Carroll, Dan Blatt and Doug Welch, and various local coordinators for the Tea Party Patriots and other tea party groups.
"When they were out in the Boston Harbor, they weren't arguing about who was gay or who was having an abortion," said Ralph King, a letter signatory who is a Tea Party Patriots national leadership council member, as well as an Ohio co-coordinator.
King said he signed onto the letter because GOProud seemed to be genuine in pushing for fiscal conservatism and limited government.
"Am I going to be the best man at a same sex-marriage wedding? That's not something I necessarily believe in," said King. "I look at myself as pretty socially conservative. But that's not what we push through the Tea Party Patriots."
That indifference is essentially the point of the gay conservative group.
SNIP
TEXT OF LETTER
Dear Senator McConnell and Representative Boehner
On behalf of limited government conservatives everywhere we write to urge you and your colleagues in Washington to put forward a legislative agenda in the next Congress that reflects the principles of the Tea Party movement.
Poll after poll confirms that the Tea Party’s laser focus on issues of economic freedom and limited government resonated with the American people on Election Day. The Tea Party movement galvanized around a desire to return to constitutional government and against excessive spending, taxation and government intrusion into the lives of the American people.
The Tea Party movement is a non-partisan movement, focused on issues of economic freedom and limited government, and a movement that will be as vigilant with a Republican-controlled Congress as we were with a Democratic-controlled Congress.
This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue, nor should it be interpreted as a political blank check.
Already, there are Washington insiders and special interest groups that hope to co-opt the Tea Party’s message and use it to push their own agenda – particularly as it relates to social issues. We are disappointed but not surprised by this development. We recognize the importance of values but believe strongly that those values should be taught by families and our houses of worship and not legislated from Washington, D.C.
We urge you to stay focused on the issues that got you and your colleagues elected and to resist the urge to run down any social issue rabbit holes in order to appease the special interests.
The Tea Party movement is not going away and we intend to continue to hold Washington accountable. Sincerely,
Christopher R Barron
Chairman of the Board, GOProud
Andrew Ian Dodge
Coordinator, Maine Tea Party Patriots
Pam Stevenson
Coordinator, Arizona Tea Party Patriots
Dianna Greenwood
Executive Director, New American Patriots (Ashland, OH)
Jim Mason II
Chairman and State Coordinator, Nebraska’s Tea Party Patriots
Ralph King
Co-coordinator Cleveland Tea Party Patriots
Co-coordinator State of Ohio Tea Party Patriots
Jack Lien
Coordinator, Tea Party Patriots of Great Malls (Montana)
Tammy Bruce
National Radio Talk Show Host
JP Weber
Coordinator, Annapolis (Maryland) Tea Party
Doug Welch,
Blogger and member Southern Illinois Tea Party
Bruce Carroll
Conservative Activist and Blogger
Pam Stout
Coordinator, Sandpoint Idaho Tea Party Patriots
Dan Blatt
Conservative Activist and Blogger
Everett Wilkinson
Coordinator, Florida Tea Party
Jimmy LaSalvia
Executive Director, GOProud
Paul Crockett
President Santa Clara (California) Tea Party
David Thor Andreasen
Cumberland County (Maine) Tea Party
I'm sorry.
I apologize.
I retract anything I've ever posted on FR in the last 10 years. I'll even take the American Flag, race car and gun collection photos off my FR home page because it may insult someone.
But I found the choice the journalist made to throw that out there somewhat bizzare and trolish - as if because he's gay, having a shot of him at the beach is somehow noteworthy.
Another zot here,
It's rare that you ever convince anyone that you are arguing with to change their position. The reason that they are arguing to begin with is that they have a solid opinion of things -- right or wrong.
And yes, most younger people are unserious and illogical -- all talk, little listening. They aren't all like that, but most are. I wasn't exactly a Greek philosopher back then either -- I was out having fun.
But...whether old or young, it's usually the lurkers and not the ones arguing who change their opinions on issues, based on listening to the arguments from both sides. Lurkers have got nothing personal invested and nothing to defend, so its easier for them to reform their ideas.
And people who are open to change and willing to defy the pack are leaders, and the pack can change leaders & ideas on a dime.
Arguments that are civil, are about the issues. Arguments that turn into verbal brawls attract the same kind of crowd that a wrestling match does. Lots of thumbs up and down, but who cares?
When you really have truth on your side, people either hear it or they don't.
Getting your ego out of the way is the hardest part.
> I get the message from everyone who has accused me of
> being a moron, a DUer, and a troll.
Uh, you musta mistook me for somebody else.
I never called you, or any other member of this forum, any of those things.
On the other hand, I, too have been called moron and troll, but never DUer, because I’m a moral conservative and a youn-earth creationist.
In my opinion underlying the sentiment premising the plea of "partial conservatism only please" that some seem to ascribe to is plain and simple -an effort to remove religious premised debate from public discourse.
The questions I have: who is afraid and why are they afraid? I think it is in these issues that conservatives separate the wheat from the chaff -the conservatives from the RINOS!
Who does not understand that religious belief in a higher authority is the very foundation our Republic sits upon?
Conservatives if truly supporting freedom and the American way should be outraged at the idea advanced that suggests "religion" termed morality here should just shut up and sit down at the back of the bus for the good of the Republic...
How exactly does government do that without separating itself from the people and the rule of law? You miss the big picture... You support tyranny and a state religion being impose -you just do not realize it...
Are you going to remain a useful idiot?
IOW, leave the baby killing and sodomy infiltration of every aspect of public life until we got the money thing straightened out.
They both have to be addressed. Can't leave one out. The usual nonsense of accusing social conservatives of wanting to kill homosexuals doesn't fly.
DBeers, what do you think of this comment:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2627138/posts?q=1&;page=504#504
Well stated. I agree with it. The higher authority for some seems to be a golden calf that may take many forms -regardless, when God is not primary the Republic loses its very foundation...
Ah, understood.
This is getting good.....
You wish!
Nothing would please the career political criminals more than changing the subject and turning brother against brother.
Everyone has to serve someone. If people do not recognize the authority of God, they have other authorities. Generally, their own minds’ desires.
Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Ba'al
--The Who?
"The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true."
--Albert Einstein
>>soon enough you’ll be fighting with Big Queers and Big Abortion over who gets to steer the Titanic.<<
Actually, that is what this months elections were about - who get’s to steer the Titanic.
Anybody that is not attempting to make their own life raft out of the remaining deck chairs is in for some very bad times, very soon. The crew is not gonna help you much.
Further, once you've reduced the FedGov to it's Art 1 Sec 8 powers, there would BE no "gay agenda". There wouldn't be anything for them to push! Period. The States might still have to shake things out, but there are a LOT of things the States should be doing that they aren't and things they are being forced to do by the FedGov that they shouldn't.
You play to win one battle and you will lose the war. Sure, there would be no abortion and we'd ship all the gays to Canada, but what good will that do us if the economy tanks and annual Fed expenditures run up to 400% of GDP?
"The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true."--Albert Einstein
"...that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them. "
--Thomas Jefferson
Since you bitterly cling to your “only the fiscal stuff counts” ideas, there is no reasoning with you.
More hyperbole about homosexuals, though. Hmm, I wonder why...
Quite frankly so am I. It is and has been a long war -a "culture war" as it has been termed.
Do you imply that retreat is the best option?
Ask yourself -do you see things being changed from the bottom up with families and society doing the changing and reshaping government or do you see a top down change being imposed by government on families and society?
Looking at Proposition 8 in California provides a good example as a battle in this culture war. The nanny state wants to impose homosexual marriage.
I myself grew tired of seeing the nanny state being imposed -this is the very reason to fight -not retreat... Enough ground has been given up -it is time to take it back.
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