Posted on 11/14/2010 3:38:40 PM PST by 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 Partys 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 Partys 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, Nebraskas 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
This election was not a mandate for the Republican Party, nor was it a mandate to act on any social issue. I agree and I will write or fax my reps.
Ditto!”
If you attended any TEA parties you would know that one of the biggest issues was a social issue - the unconstitutional health care law that was passed against the will of the majority of the American people. It is also an economic issue, but mandates a great amount of social engineering.
Everyone please look up the term "agent provocateur". Short definition - someone who infiltrates an organization (in this case tea party) to do harm to that organization from the inside.
I really find it quite repugnant to hear the phrase "Gay Conservative Group". That is like saying "Conservatives for Progressive Values", "Conservatives for Global Warming", "Conservatives for Obama", ect...
This is why 98% of Illinois FReepers were supporting the third party candidate for Senate over UBER RINO DIABLO Mark Kirk who would go along with everything these gutter groups stand for.
Mark Kirk is pro cap and tax, 100% rating from NARAL (Abortion Group), anti-gun, pro-gay, the list goes on and on.
People like DJ and Billyboy were screaming from the roof top about Mark Kirk but he still won and he is going to make Olympia Snowe look like Jesse Helms.
Heck, I don't much like Congress but even I don't think it is a CP organization. That was the question. Seriously, the fact that something is cited or quoted in the Conggressiional Record doesn't give have any necessary credibility as a source. Look, for example, at the junk Charles Rangel puts in there.
Again, where did these "goals" come from e.g. what actual CP document are they taken from? If it is just one man's opinion of what he thinks the CP wanted, it is pretty much worthless....unless documentation can be provided.
They weren’t arguing about the Abomination Against Nature, or the Crime of Abortion on Boston Harbor because there wasn’t anyone who had the chutzpah to try to tell civilized people it was something they had to accept and affirm.
I would not sign such a letter. Such a letter implies that these individuals would vote for an end to DADT and would push homosexual “marriage.”
In a perfect world, my principles might have to go along with the “marriage” thing or actually the doing away with of marriage as a legal contract, because people shouldn’t get special favors just because they sign a partnership agreement.
There are political alliances available out there to accomplish a great many goals if we go about it intelligently. There is a clear majority in this country that opposes the current trend of more government. Fine -- unite with those people, and solve that problem. We've actually got a political majority on the gay issues as well given that African-Americans generally are conservative on that. So then you unite with them to defeat things like Prop 8.
But if you insist on doing it all at the same time, you will lose too many fiscal conservatives because of social issues, too many social conservatives because of budget issues, and accomplish neither objective. And the only people who benefit from that are those who are liberals on both fiscal and social issues.
We just delivered a pretty crushing defeat to the left based on budgetary/fiscal issues, and the smart tactic is to exploit success and pursue rather than stopping to loot the baggage train and see what other goodies we might find.
Nobody ever sticks up for masturbation.
Yes, they are. They are not even acknowledging that it is the advocates of anti-family policies that are using government to attack us. They talk as if we're the ones starting the fight.
But, we won't be bullied by the radicals or by these phonies.
FYI: One more time: FR's God-given Life & Liberty constitutional conservative activism agenda!!
The Pink Swastika is a powerful exposure of pre-World War II Germany and its quest for reviving and imitating a Hellenistic-paganistic idea of homo-eroticism and militarism.
Dr. Mordechai Nisan, Hebrew University of Jerusalemhttp://www.defendthefamily.com/pfrc/books/pinkswastika/html/the_pinkswastika_4th_edition_-_final.htm
No. You ignore the social issues at your peril. I will say however that until you own all three branches, it’s a smart policy. Once you have the entire government, hit ‘em hard.
You need to pay attention. The people trying to regulate your diet are the same people who are trying to foist same-sex marriage on society, and stop you from speaking against it.
I've been to 5 Tea Parties. Mandated Healthcare is a "FREEDOM issue" --the government doesn't own your body, nor your bank account--if it did, that would be slavery, not freedom.
Virtually every political issue can be turned into "a social issue" if you press it far enough, but that doesn't make it one.
The point is that the Tea Party got broad agreement, both in person and at the ballot box, on the ideas of smaller government, lower taxes and government generally staying out of our personal lives. It repudiated the Liberal agenda -- that's true-- but that does not mean that all who voted for Tea Party candidates wished to exchange one government social agenda for another one that is equally intrusive into our personal lives. To abuse that trust by imposing another set of restrictive rules could squander whatever progress we've made in defeating Obama's tyranny.
The Secular Left Christian bashers have co-opted and twisted these norms -—and are now trying to and indeed have succeeded in codifying them.
Default has now become gay and infanticide - OK— — the norms.
Oh, I’m just a yapping little chihuahua.
Trying to do my duty.
Just ‘cause it’s the right thing to do!
:-)
[you will lose too many fiscal conservatives because of social issues,]
Then they weren’t really “conservative”, were they. Good riddance.
Nonsense. The people writing the letter are members of the GOProud, an all-homo-agenda organization. Their legislative agenda while supposedly fiscally conservative (not even that, really), pushes these among others:
1. Homosexual “marriage”
2. Repeal of DADT and open homosexuals in the military
3. Punishing other countries who have laws homosexuals don’t like
4. Special funding for “gay owned” businesses
5. Tax measures giving homosexuals who live together special breaks
That’s all I can remember off the top of my head, if I go to their site or search my docs I could find the entire list.
Their head dude already stated that their ONLY interest is “GAY” issues. ONLY INTEREST - got it? They are NOT conservative! They’re homosexual activists who want to pay a bit less taxes and own guns! They are NOT ALLIES!
Nonsense. The people writing the letter are members of the GOProud, an all-homo-agenda organization and people who somehow are deluded into thinking that an alliance with avowed homosexual activists who admitted sole interest is advancing the homosexual agenda is helpful to them. Anyone alligning themselves with a homosexual activist organization such as GOProud is either willfully ignorant (unlikely) or morally blind. Not only that, making nice with homosexual activists is NOT a winning tactic for Republicans, in fact just the opposit.
The GOProud (proud of anal sodomy) legislative agenda while supposedly fiscally conservative (not even that, really), pushes these among others:
1. Homosexual “marriage”
2. Repeal of DADT and open homosexuals in the military
3. Punishing other countries who have laws homosexuals don’t like
4. Special funding for “gay owned” businesses
5. Tax measures giving homosexuals who live together special breaks
6. Fedgov funding for renovating various “downtowns” or “old towns” of cities. Oddly enough, that’s where homosexuals generally like to live.
That’s all I can remember off the top of my head, if I go to their site or search my docs I could find the entire list.
Their head dude already stated that their ONLY interest is “GAY” issues. ONLY INTEREST - got it? They are NOT conservative! They’re homosexual activists who want to pay a bit less taxes and own guns! They are NOT ALLIES!
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