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Successful Tea Party Movement Must Include Pro-Life Issues, Not Just Economy
Life News ^
| 8/31/10
| Tom Glessner
Posted on 08/31/2010 4:17:24 PM PDT by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Tom Glessner is a pro-life attorney who is the president of NIFLA, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. NIFLA is an organization with more than 1,200 affiliated pregnancy centers that provides legal, medical and practical help for pregnancy centers across the country.
Political change is blowing in the wind but it is not the change promised by Barack Obama when he ran for the presidency. For sure, Obama has brought political change to the nation, but his transformational policies have meant bigger government, higher taxes, federal subsidies of abortion on demand, and greater governmental control over the lives of American citizens.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens across the nation have raised their voices to protest Obamas policies of change. They are crying out for a different change that will honor the integrity of each individual and create an atmosphere where true liberty in all spheres of life economic, cultural, and spiritual- reigns. Political pollsters are now predicting a huge seismic shift in the political landscape this November. The recent Glenn Beck sponsored rally in Washington D.C., attended by thousands upon thousands of grass roots activists, indicates that this public outcry of protest is real and powerful.
The Tea Party movement is comprised of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents from all walks of life. The political ruling elite, the corporate world, and the media have completely failed to comprehend this populist movement dismissing it as marginal, extreme and even racist. However, this movement is not composed of ignorant and bigoted individuals, as suggested by the political class. Rather, it is an authentic grassroots movement of thoughtful and patriotic people demanding real change from an out-of-touch political establishment.
The Tea Party movement, for the most part, centers its protest on economic issues and concern about the loss of freedom that an ever-growing federal government brings. These concerns are valid and appropriate. Most leaders of this movement also believe in the sanctity of life and the need to halt the wholesale destruction of innocent human life through abortion and other life related issues such as embryonic stem cell research. However, many in the Tea Party movement have made it clear that while they are sympathetic with the pro-life cause, the abortion issue is not formally part of the Tea Party agenda.
Economic issues are a vital concern; as is the growing size of the federal government and its overreaching into the lives of ordinary citizens. The overwhelming burden of excess regulation and taxation upon businesses and individuals is alarming. In the same manner, however, the killing of 1.25 million unborn children annually from abortion must be a grave concern. Accordingly, a failure by the Tea Party to incorporate the serious pro-life concerns of millions of Americans into its agenda will be fatal to achieving success.
Perhaps, the Tea Party should take a lesson from the old fashioned three-legged milking stool. When I was a child I visited my aunt and uncle on their dairy farm and was intrigued watching my uncle milk the cows while sitting on a three-legged stool. I asked him why he used such a funny chair to milk the cows. He explained that a four-legged chair can be unbalanced if one of its legs is a different length than the others and it could even tip over if you leaned backwards. A three-legged stool, on the other hand, balances evenly and won't tip over even if one of its legs is longer
We should learn something from the old-fashioned milking stool. There are three legs to a successful agenda that will change America for the better. Each leg is critical and the current grassroots movement for change in America will collapse if any of these legs is ignored. These legs are:
1) Revival of the Economy: This leg requires the establishment a strong robust economy that creates full employment and does not burden small businesses with taxes and oppressive regulations that hinder job development. Limited government and reduced taxation are at the core and are necessary to bring the nation out of the serious economic recession/depression in which we find ourselves.
2) Maintaining a Strong National Defense and Protecting Homeland Security: This leg requires a serious commitment by the government to win the war on terror and protect our countrys border from those who would illegally enter and do us harm.
3) Protecting the Family Unit and Restoring the Right to Life for All: The social issues protecting the sanctity of marriage and restoring the right to life are issues of equal importance. Millions of Americans, including myself, have placed these issues at the top of the priority list for the next generation of political leaders to seriously address.
To date, while it appears that most Tea Party leaders verbally support all three legs of this milk stool some, such as Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, assert that the social issues (and specifically abortion and the right to life) must take a back seat to the other two legs, which are seen as more important.
A further example of this viewpoint was shown in a recent interview of Sarah Palin with Sean Hannity of Fox News. Gov. Sarah Palin, a committed pro-life leader, was asked to name the top five issues facing the country today and the deaths of 1.25 million unborn annually from abortion was not on her list. If, indeed, this is the approach a new Congress takes after the November mid-term elections, then the agenda of the Tea Party movement will fail.
America must be forewarned. A nation that fails to protect the lives of its most vulnerable members has set a course for itself that will lead to its eventual destruction from within. The killing of future generations through the act of abortion has already taken a toll on the demographical future of the nation and the Western world. Unless this trend is stopped then, notwithstanding the impact of the Tea Party movement, our culture and nation will have effectively committed suicide.
The invention of the three-legged milking stool was truly ingenious. Will the current populist movement for change understand this and formally incorporate the life issues into its agenda? Time will tell and the future of America hangs in the balance.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; moralabsolutes; prolife; teaparty
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To: EternalVigilance
Why hasn't your precious science stopped the abortion holocaust by now?You'll have to ask 'science', not me...
Science and medicine is who needs to be convinced to end abortion and get on board, IMHO. They're the ones doing them. Argue it to them based on proofs and use technology to show the truth. That's the way. Not religious based arguments. That's all.
To: HairOfTheDog; EternalVigilance
I probably disagree most of all with you and the particular narrow view of liberty you seem to think is best for the rest of us. I dont want it. Let's take another look at what EV wrote, which you dismiss as a "narrow view" of liberty that you don't want:
Those who have no regard for the unalienable rights of all, including the most helpless and innocent among us, will very soon find themselves deprived of their own rights and liberty.
As for abortion... I think abortion will end when technology and medicine demands it end, The "just let it run its course" approach was tried with slavery and damn near destroyed our Republic.
162
posted on
09/01/2010 10:51:27 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: dsc
Such a Congress could outlaw funding of Planned Barrenhood and similar groups and gut many usurped powers of SCOTUS and inferior courts over Comrade O’s veto if possible.
163
posted on
09/01/2010 10:52:54 AM PDT
by
BlackElk
(Dean of Discipline Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Society: Burn 'em Bright!)
To: HairOfTheDog
The truth is already self-evident. Unfortunately, those who willfully shut their eyes have a hard time seeing what is right in front of their nose.
164
posted on
09/01/2010 10:54:52 AM PDT
by
EternalVigilance
(Nations, and individuals, ignore nature and NatureÂ’s God at their own peril.)
Comment #165 Removed by Moderator
To: jla
#154 was directed only at jla. The others were pinged as potentially interested.
166
posted on
09/01/2010 10:55:32 AM PDT
by
BlackElk
(Dean of Discipline Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Society: Burn 'em Bright!)
To: wagglebee
Let's take another look at what EV wrote, which you dismiss as a "narrow view" of liberty that you don't want:I don't have a narrow view of EV... I've been around awhile.
This thread was about how the tea party will be successful in getting votes. My answer, quite simply is, make it a party that will lower my taxes and decrease the role of government in my life. Start bringing in religious and social issues, I think you weaken it through mission and focus creep. We already have the bloated GOP for that.
To: jla
You are not only not a gentleman, you are an ignorant clod.
168
posted on
09/01/2010 10:57:18 AM PDT
by
trisham
(Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
To: BlackElk
169
posted on
09/01/2010 11:00:20 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: HairOfTheDog
We already have the bloated GOP for that. Fact is, we already have a GOP that has been doing exactly what you counsel for years. And you want the Tea Parties to be a mirror image of what has, because of its complete moral vacuity, already failed.
170
posted on
09/01/2010 11:03:32 AM PDT
by
EternalVigilance
(Nations, and individuals, ignore nature and NatureÂ’s God at their own peril.)
To: wagglebee
If we don’t campaign and win on family/life issues, we may win in the short term, but we will lose our country in the long run.
171
posted on
09/01/2010 11:08:11 AM PDT
by
Antoninus
(It's a degenerate society where dogs have more legal rights than unborn babies.)
To: HairOfTheDog; EternalVigilance; Coleus; narses; Salvation; cpforlife.org; BykrBayb; ...
This thread was about how the tea party will be successful in getting votes. My answer, quite simply is, make it a party that will lower my taxes and decrease the role of government in my life. Start bringing in religious and social issues, I think you weaken it through mission and focus creep. We already have the bloated GOP for that. People like you need a serious history lesson.
Barry Goldwater was an abysmal FAILURE because he thought that conservatism was only about fiscal conservatism and a strong defense. Ronald Reagan recognized the need for social conservatism and won two landslides.
The people who want fiscal conservatism and the exclusion of social conservatism ARE NOT conservatives at all -- they are libertarians.
172
posted on
09/01/2010 11:10:12 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: Lazlo in PA
If the Pro life message was such a universal winner, why has a grass roots movement of its own not take hold lately?
Ask yourself this--if Life is such a loser as an issue, why does Obama send out lackeys like Doug Kmiec to pander for pro-life votes?
173
posted on
09/01/2010 11:10:12 AM PDT
by
Antoninus
(It's a degenerate society where dogs have more legal rights than unborn babies.)
To: EternalVigilance
Fact is, we already have a GOP that has been doing exactly what you counsel for years. Oh if only that were true. Government would be smaller (it isn't). My taxes would be lower (they're still too high). We wouldn't have entire city blocks in DC and elsewhere devoted to government that just simply doesn't need to be there.
I'm not sure I'll ever get what I want.. For someone to have a genuine impact on the sheer bloat of government. It's become so huge it's beyond my ability to even picture it. But the tea party is the best chance I've seen lately, bless them and let's keep their backpacks light this time.
Not asking you to agree EV. I doubt you will. I just hope you don't get in the way. Have a nice day :~)
To: Antoninus
There are huge portions of the federal budget that don’t really rise and fall on a per capita basis (defense being the most obvious). If we continue to murder future generations, taxes will have to go up out of necessity. No nation in the history of the world has ever been successful if the population rate fell for an extended period of time.
175
posted on
09/01/2010 11:13:51 AM PDT
by
wagglebee
("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
To: wagglebee
I disagree. The Tea Party should remain focused on taxes and government spending. People wanting to focus on pro-Life issues should form a Life Party along similar lines. Membership in both parties may overlap, but they should remain distinct.
176
posted on
09/01/2010 11:15:29 AM PDT
by
PapaBear3625
("It is only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything" -- Fight Club)
To: usconservative
But I'll tell you this: If the Tea Party movement loses its focus on the very narrow fiscal issues that are absolutely destroying this country and our children's future, you can kiss any chance of restoring the dignity and sanctity of human life goodbye in this country as well. There just won't be anything left, period.
And I maintain that you have it exactly backwards. The moral issues are what's destroying this country. You can pass all the laws you want cutting spending and reducing taxes. If too many of the people are irresponsible, dishonest, and degenerate, you can't have a republic. You can have a low-tax benign monarchy, but not a self-governing republic.
177
posted on
09/01/2010 11:16:33 AM PDT
by
Antoninus
(It's a degenerate society where dogs have more legal rights than unborn babies.)
To: Lazlo in PA
people forget quickly, even if roe is overturned it goes back to the states.
I would submit the best way to deal with this is to put in ratchet clicks the way the left has screwed up the country.
parental notification is one good way.
regardless, the abortion debate is a fast track method the rinos will used to kill the tea party. IOW the elites will abort the tea party with a smile.
178
posted on
09/01/2010 11:18:40 AM PDT
by
longtermmemmory
(VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
To: HairOfTheDog
Oh if only that were true. Government would be smaller (it isn't). My taxes would be lower (they're still too high). That's not what I meant and I think you know it. What I was referring to was their complete uncomfortableness with addressing the core moral problems that are at the root of what is destroying America.
But hey, they'll keep telling you they're for lowering your taxes and limiting government! While they spend like LBJ on crack, and grow the government like FDR on steroids.
Never trust any politician who tells you the core moral questions don't matter. If they'll sell out the weak and helpless and treat their own oaths with contempt they WILL sell out anything and everything, with just a little bit of pressure. It's a certainty.
179
posted on
09/01/2010 11:23:03 AM PDT
by
EternalVigilance
(Nations, and individuals, ignore nature and NatureÂ’s God at their own peril.)
To: longtermmemmory
even if roe is overturned it goes back to the states Which other unalienable rights besides the supreme right, the right to live, do you think should go "back to the states"?
180
posted on
09/01/2010 11:24:57 AM PDT
by
EternalVigilance
(Nations, and individuals, ignore nature and NatureÂ’s God at their own peril.)
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