re: “The Tea Party is making a huge mistake if they try to purge social issues from their agenda.”
Look, I’m totally pro-life. I even participated in Operation Rescue events and was arrested for blocking an abortion mill’s doors.
However, though I think the Tea Party organizer was a bit too blunt and possibly rude to the pro-life guy handing out tracts - the point remains that the Tea Party is all about stopping the fiscal irresponsibility and the confiscatory taxation of our state and federal governments.
It is that single most issue that has rallied Americans from several political points of view. I dare say, that if we can stop the insane spending by our state/federal governments, it will stop the money given to the abortion industry. It will also put a stop the “open-border illegal alien” issue as well.
Why? Because these issues (abortion/illegal aliens) are all part of the tremendous drain on tax-payers. Tea Partiers are against the spending of tax payer money that ultimately supports illegal aliens in this country, they are against giving taxpayer money to private organizations like Planned Parenthood, the National Endowment for the Arts, or to unconstitutional federal departments like the Dept. of Education.
The common ground among all these things is the spending, spending, spending by our government on these and other things it has no business doing - the Tea Partiers recognize that we can no longer afford any of this stuff because we are flat broke as a nation.
Allow the Tea Party to focus laser-like on stopping the government spending and this will take care of the majority of social issues as well without having to become a distinctly “pro-life” lobby group. It is true, I believe, that the out of control government spending is what has motivated the millions of voting Americans across party lines to rally together to stop it.
If we try to turn the Tea Party from it’s primary unifying theme of stopping insane government taxation and spending, it will also stop the monentum of the movement and bog it down and things we all obviously don’t agree on. It will fragment the support.
Getting our fiscal house in order will directly influence the government spending on social issues we want stopped as well.
You dare say you are wrong. Nothing guarantees that reduced federal funding is reduced abortion funding. What the "purely fiscal" crowd is missing here is that this isn't just a discussion of "less" funding but rather a discussion of funding priorities. The government has a roll to play and this debate is about where it should spend... and where it shouldn't. At the end of the day, as your post points out, that is a moral discussion as we decide our national priorities.
As to your post, you're preaching to the choir. So, no need to get upset. The Founder of FR is a Tea Party member and he assures his conservative brethren that the Tea Party is filled with good social conservative, pro-life Christians. Good enough for me.
Having said that, this conservative will remain vigilant against any and all forms of liberal, libertarian and neocon minorities looking to undermine social conservatism.
>>>>>The common ground among all these things is the spending, spending, spending by our government on these and other things it has no business doing - the Tea Partiers recognize that we can no longer afford any of this stuff because we are flat broke as a nation.
We conservatives have been fighting against big government, the welfare state, excessive spending and social liberalism forever. As far as I'm concerned the Tea Party is an off-shoot of the conservative movement.
Just this morning I've been on several threads that had to do with taxes and spending. Along with ongoing battles against fraudulent efforts of a clown named, Donald Trump and his minions. Also, I've been hitting Boehner and his crew over the head for their measly budget deal with Obama and the Dems. Been giving kudos to Cong Ryan for his courageous 2012 budget proposal.
You see, conservatives can handle more than one issue at a time. We conservatives can juggle fiscal issues and social issues without missing a beat.