No ‘social issues’ - Pro-life tracts banned at Sacramento Tea Party event

California Catholic ^ | April 18, 2011

[GonzoII]

Bud Reeves, president of the Sanctity of Human Life Network Inc., reports that he was intercepted at a Tea Party rally in Sacramento on Saturday and ordered to stop distributing pro-life pamphlets to attendees.

The event was sponsored by NorCal Tea Party Patriots and held at the Cal Expo in Sacramento. Scheduled speakers, among others, included U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center and a contributor to Fox News, radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt, and Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute.

“Today I attended the Sacramento area gathering of the Tea Party to hand out prolife tracts,” said Reeves in an April 16 email. “Given that the Tea Party purports to be an organization promoting the U.S. Constitution and all that it stands for, I thought my handing out of a small prolife tract promoting the most important civil right, the right to life, would be welcome. I was wrong. Not long after we started passing out the 7 thousand tracts we had printed for the event, we were told that we must stop the distribution, which was welcomed by most of the attendees we approached and who received the tract.”

Reeves said he asked why and was told, “Because we will not be involved in the ‘social issues.’ I asked to talk to a supervisor. I was escorted up to the stage area and when a supervisor did not appear, I returned to the crowd to continue handing out the tracts. Not long after I heard my name on the P.A. system, asking me to respond. I did so and was met by Mr. Rapini, the organizer of the Tea Party event.

[GonzoII]

No life, no nothin'.

[surroundedbyblue]

This is the issue I have with the Tea Party. it stinks & makes me very suspicious of these people. Social issues are just as important as fiscal ones & I do not believe the two should be seperated. We don’t live in a vaccuum society; everything is intertwined & affects each other.

Because of this issue, I believe the Tea Party has become its own worst enemy.

[Pollster1]

I was under the impression that most Tea Partiers had a strong affinity for free expression. I didn’t think pro-life was at the center of TEA (taxed enough already) Party movement, but I would have expected better. Hopefully this was just a California aberration. If the “leadership” doesn’t agree, they need to remember that there is no formal leadership.

[JennysCool]

While I agree with the sentiment, I also know from experience that letting people just willy-nilly hand out pamphlets, tracts, etc. at these kind of gatherings is asking for trouble. First, if you let some organizations pass them out, but not others, you create discord, and second, you occasionally get trolls passing out stuff to make your group look bad.

[Russ]

I notice an increasing slant of the Tea Party toward Libertarianism. It has become more libertarian than conservative. Thus the reluctance to engage in social issues.

[GonzoII]

Hopefully this was just a California aberration.
—

That’s what I was hoping.

[misterrob]

The social cons who continue to favor the nanny state and the spending on entitlement don’t belong in anything attached to the Tea Party which was formed in response to government bailouts and fiscal irresponsibility.

[unique]

Why not just concentrate of fiscal issues? It’s a great plan to do so with way over 50% support among voters - add social issues, support disappears and nothing gets done.

[misterrob]

The Tea Party movement was driven by a belief in less government which is a central belief of libertarianism. I grant you that there are some libertarians that are open borders and anti-military but that is a different issue.

[gjones77]

The Tea Party was formed over fiscal issues, not social, accept that, not everyone shares your views on social issues.

We need to fix this country fiscally otherwise social issues won’t mean squat.

[bimboeruption]

“You can’t be a fiscal Conservative and not be a social Conservative. A large part of the expanse of government is to make up for a dysfunctional society, because our culture is falling apart, the family is falling apart.” Jim DeMint

Our tea party, the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party Association, addresses fiscal and social issues.

The other tea party in town addresses only the fiscal...they on their last legs, we are thriving.

Check out our site at http://www.bloodofpatriots.org

[misterrob]

Then please explain how one can be a fiscal con and support Medicare with its expensive and budget busting elements?

[UCFRoadWarrior]

A “Fiscal Conservative” is neither....

I wonder if this is the Tea Party group aligned with Freedom Works....the pro-illegal/anti-American group run by Dick Armey?

Why would any Tea Party group diss a pro-life organization is beyond me.

[wagglebee]

Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]

[redgolum]

Which is what will sink the TEA party in the end. They will be overwhelmed by those who seek to co-opt the movement.

[Gondring]

“Sacramento” != “Mansfield North Central Ohio”

[Mozilla]

You know we are headed to a bigger downfall in the country and the world for that matter when even the tea party is not enough. The Tea party silences people who every well could have issues against Obama. So what good is that.

[tentmaker]

It’s not a matter of what you think about any of the social issues, it’s a matter of keeping the TEA Party true to it’s original intent. More than a few TEA Party groups have a combination of Independents, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and more involved with them. The thing that makes all these different points of view come together is that they all can agree on a few simple points: constitutionally limited government and fiscal responsibility are probably the most important. You can spin off issues on taxation and budget that stay within those limits, but the social issues don’t. Even when you find a majority of the TEA Party groups supports a particular issue, it’s not wise to embrace those that go beyond the founding intent, unless you wish to fracture the coalition and return to old style party politics. If you want to support those issues, you still have the Republicans, the Democrats, the Libertarians or whomever to hook up with.

[rintense]

Yep. The Tea Party has completely ignored social issues. Ironic that some Pubs are telling voters to ignore them too.

[bimboeruption]

Who supports medicare?