Successful Tea Party Movement Must Include Pro-Life Issues, Not Just Economy

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 Obama’s 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 country’s 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.

No, you were not understanding what I wrote.

I am right because the morality built into the Constitution came from Natural Law Theory. (Read up on it, it is fascinating and quite complicated). Cicero (who expanded on Aristotle) said that Laws (political) that go against Natural Law (God’s Laws where our inalienable rights came from) are unjust. That is the whole basis of our rights, by the way, and how reason, common sense and science was put into the logic of all our laws, etc.

It so happens that St. Thomas Aquinas aligned Catholic Theology to Natural Law Theory in 1200 or so....that is why Christianity is the most compatible religion for our type of government. Catholicism hardly ever deviates from Natural Law so you are confusing religion with Natural Law Theory.

It is Natural Law Theory (not religion) that says the Creator designed a man and a woman to mate and produce children. It is natural law that also says that children raised by their biological parents are physically and emotionally safer and healthier because there is a biological vested interest in the child.

I could go on and on, but you are talking about moralities not based on Natural Law Theory. Most Christian sects, because of St. Thomas Aquinas, are in agreement with Natural Law Theory.

Islam is not compatible with Natural Law Theory. Neither is immorality because it usually will alway deny someone a basic natural right—stealing, takes away someone’s private property...Natural Rights say that man has a right to ownership and private property, including themselves and their minds.

Of course, Christianity recognizes all natural rights but gives the reward of heaven for compliance. Governments don’t and shouldn’t start preaching heaven and hell. But, as the Founders knew, the need for a religious people and moral people was essential to keep a government small and unobtrusive. They did not mean just ANY religion, either....(like islam)....they meant the Judeo-Christian (Western Civilization) religion.

Actually, the pro-life movement has had a lot of success in changing the thinking of people where pro-life people have become the majority now. It is a great feat considering the Progressives 24/7 agitprop in all major media outlets and schools, Liberals can’t think—that is why Michael Savage says they have a mental disorder—it is what the KGB defector describes when Marxist lies are being fed constantly to a population starting with Sesame Street and especially intense during Days of Silence and cucumber exhibitions.

You can NOT separate the political from the moral in the US. Our rights come from the Creator and if you take the Creator away, we have no rights. So if you keep Him, then you have to apply morality—the morality of Natural Law Theory.

All actions have a moral component...so to think being fiscally conservative can be separated from being morally conservative is hogwash. Why be “fiscally conservative”?????? Because it is moral....to NOT spend other people’s money which requires theft. It is ALL because of MORALITY that you do any action or nothing!

Pro life issue is an element of our Constitution. The Tea Party is trying to get back to the Constitutional foundation of our country. THAT INCLUDES THE PHILOSOPHY of John Locke—Natural Law Theory which demands the respect of the right to life in man, along with the right to private property and the free exercise of thinking (religion) and freedom to raise their children with their own beliefs as long as they do not conflict with Natural Law Theory.

The right to life comes from Natural Law theory. Just because Christianity is aligned with Natural Law through St. Thomas Aquinas, doesn’t make it religious. Of course, Christianity affirms Natural Law, that is why that religion is so compatible with a government based on Natural Law Theory.

The government gets its power from WE the people, but everything (laws, constitution, rights) were based on Natural Law Theory so the Tea Party can do nothing that undermines Natural Law or allow laws that interfere with those natural rights if we are going to be the United States of America.

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