Avoid Social Issues, GOP Urged (Homosexualists, Pro-Aborts Co-opt Tea Party Movement)

Politico ^ | Sunday, November 14, 2010 | Ben Smith and Byron Tau

[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

[MrEdd]

Bingo.

And right now, the lack of those things is winning the publick to their importance.

There is no reason to compromise.

[VADoc1980]

The right to buggery is protected under the 9th and 10th amendments of the Constitution. If a state does not prohibit it (and states should have the right to prohibit it, Lawrence v. Texas notwithstanding) then trying to use the federal government to push anti-sodomy laws is not even close to constitutional.

[rintense]

So you’re back trying to disguise yourself as a conservative? You’re one of the biggest RINO defenders around here, including Scott Brown, and you have the gall to attack the Tea Party, let alone the site owner?

[WaterBoard]

TEA PARTY means ‘Taxed Enough Already”. It seeks to reduce government in our every day lives.

Now if you want to campaign on anti-abortion or anti-homosexual agenda, you are not going to find it in the Tea Party.

That’s the beauty of the Tea Party, its solely focused on shrinking government.

[VADoc1980]

Little jeremiah, do you still support a federal abortion ban in complete violation of the 10th amendment to the constitution? All powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and to the people. Once Roe v. Wade is reversed, the matter will be sent back to the states, and they can deal with it as they see fit. Most states will either outlaw it or place heavy restrictions on it. A few (New York, Massachusetts, and most of the northeast) will continue to allow it. That's what federalism is all about.

Supporting federal action on social issues is anathema to conservatism. Read your Constitution for once instead of just using it as a convenient reference for a talking point. If you want to ban things at the federal level without running afoul of the Constitution, you need to pass Constitutional amendments. Unless you're a liberal, that is.

[Jim Robinson]

Reposted especially for RINO/CINO trolls like you:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627159/posts

DON’T TREAD ON ME!!

[little jeremiah]

Hmm I tried pinging this but it didn't work, I keep getting "proxy error" - good thing, since you got it first! Anyway, I copied my mini-rant:

Here it comes, with at least one representative right on this thread. Leftists with a label "Republican" or "conseravtive" but promoting abortion, homosexual agenda crap and so on are nothing but enemies of the Constitution. Couple points - fiscal conservatism but socially liberal always turns into fiscal liberalism; it's a fiction/fantasy that never has worked and never will. Why? because socially liberal policies first of all cost big money to force down peoples' throats, monitor, and then to clean up the human debris that results. Second, socially moderate/liberal Republics never win. Third, since so many people don't want to swallow the agenda, force is needed to shove it on unwilling people, so it's nothing by tyranny anyway.

Please note that the GOProud is not conseravtive at all, it's merely another incarnation of the Log Cabin "Repugs" whose goal is to transmogrify the Republican Party into another tentacle of the homosexual "rights" movement. 90% of the GOProud's legislative agenda is clearcut straight across homo-nazi agenda issues - from same sex marriage to perverts in the military.

And you know what group filed suit to force the military to accept open perverts? Why, the Log Cabin Repugs. Neither the GOProud or the Logs are conservative in any way, shape or form. They are trojan horses trying to force the GOP to the left. They just happen to like guns a little bit and woudln't mind paying less taxes.

[counterpunch]

We are more likely to win over blacks and Hispanics with social conservatism.

Karl Rove spent a decade trying to win over blacks and hispanics, and all he got out of it was a Democrat House, Senate, and president.
Republicans would do well concentrating on being responsive to the desires of the majority of Americans, rather than catering to constituencies. We've had way too much of that from both sides for decades now. It's what has brought America to the brink of collapse.
 

[wagglebee]

Now if you want to campaign on anti-abortion or anti-homosexual agenda, you are not going to find it in the Tea Party.

That’s the beauty of the Tea Party, its solely focused on shrinking government.

The nation's fiscal problems were largely created by the fact that there are 52 MILLION MURDERED AMERICANS who should be paying taxes but aren't.

[Jim Robinson]

Reposted especially for RINO/CINO trolls like you:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627159/posts

DON’T TREAD ON ME!!

Troll sighting!!

ZOT!!

[wagglebee]

Little jeremiah, do you still support a federal abortion ban in complete violation of the 10th amendment to the constitution?

Have you ever actually read the Constitution?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I'll give you a hint, chief among the Blessings of Liberty is life for without it all other blessings are moot. The term posterity means those generations NOT YET BORN.

In his opinion in Roe, Blackmun even noted that if the unborn are persons then they have FULL Constitutional rights and abortion is unconstitutional.

Do YOU believe the unborn are persons? YES or NO.

[ari-freedom]

“Karl Rove spent a decade trying to win over blacks and hispanics, and all he got out of it was a Democrat House, Senate, and president.”

And now we have Senator-elect Rubio, a GOP hispanic governor in New Mexico and the 23rd Texas House seat. But no, we just have to have our Pete Wilson’s, Arnold’s and Meg Whitman’s.

[Anti-Bubba182]

There is no need to join with GopProud on anything. They do not have numbers nor do they represent numbers. Their very presence is divisive and I doubt that is an accident. Tea Party Patriots were stupid to join in any statement with them.

[B Knotts]

Please note...”Tea Party Patriots” did not sign this statement...some misguided people associated with TPP did.

[MrEdd]

Tokyo Rove is a Soros funded globalist who engineered the governments strategy to keep the seizure of 255 metric tonnes of Iraqi uranium yellow-cake out of the public eye.

He is, most likely the closes approximation (light years away) of a conservative you can find that agrees with the policies you espouse.

[WaterBoard]

Then your saying woman are responsible for our economic mess? :)

[Anti-Bubba182]

Then those, “misguided people” need a public rebuke ASAP.

[counterpunch]

And look at what Marco Rubio, Susana Martinez, and Francisco Canseco ran on: fiscal conservatism and reigning in Big Government.

I should remind all of you, that taxpayer subsidized abortion funding, state protected abortion on demand, and states redefining marriage are all products of activist Big Government running wild. I’m arguing that the entire social conservative agenda can be advanced on a platform of limiting the size and scope of government, because it all falls under that, without the need to open up a divisive debate that will only hamper conservative efforts.

[KevinDavis]

That is correct... The real world is much different than freeper world...

[B Knotts]

They do. I just want to make sure everyone understands that these people are trying to divide and conquer by making us think that TPP is taking this anti-family position, when it’s really just some “coordinators” and “activists.”