Tea Party Avoids Divisive Social Issues

[alp227]

Kate Zernike, NYTimes

For decades, faith and family have been at the center of the conservative movement. But as the Tea Party infuses conservatism with new energy, its leaders deliberately avoid discussion of issues like gay marriage or abortion.

God, life and family get little if any mention in statements or manifestos. The motto of the Tea Party Patriots, a large coalition of groups, is “fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets.” The Independence Caucus questionnaire, which many Tea Party groups use to evaluate candidates, poses 80 questions, most on the proper role of government, tax policy and the federal budgeting process, and virtually none on social issues.

The Contract From America, which is being created Wiki-style by Internet contributors as a manifesto of what “the people” want government to do, also mentions little in the way of social issues, beyond a declaration that parents should be given choice in how to educate their children. By contrast, the document it aims to improve upon — the Contract With America, which Republicans used to market their successful campaign to win a majority in Congress in 1994 — was prefaced with the promise that the party would lead a Congress that “respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/13/us/politics/13tea.html

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Social issues will inevitably arise

and when they do, it's Katie bar the door! The teabagger 'movement' will suffer insurmountable schism.

[WCGreen]

2. Then they should be totally against the GOP congresspeople who

signed the contract on America and are still serving in Congress...

They all pledged to serve five terms and leave.

Well, if they are still here they broke their pledge...

[Cha]

3. Your defintion of g-o-p is actually

the best I've heard.

[kestrel91316]

4. We know where they stand on social issues. They are just trying to keep it on

the QT, so as not to alienate any potential libertarian donors.

Trust me, they are bigtime bible beaters and christofascists.

[jsmithsen]

5. New Approach

Thomas Frank has argued the theocratic stuff was the selling point to pick up a mass base for the RP. The goal was to gut the social contract.

It appears the RP is trying a new approach with the Teabags. Theocracy has alienated enough people on the one hand. On the other it is possible to build a base directly around the race to the bottom. As neoliberalism progresses more and more people are left to their own devices, including blue-collar workers. They are forced to think like businessmen and obsess about taxes etc.

The RP is trying to build a base to gut Social Security.

Libertarians play with the Left a bit with the nonsense about "crony capitalism". What a bunch of utopian crap - this is "actually existing capitalism". Read about Hamilton, the Whigs, Lincoln, Gilded Age protectionism, Smoot-Hawley.

When businessmen do rotten things we can say to the Teabags and the Libertarians - "these are your guys - defend them or stand aside".

[nemo137]

6. Some photos from the 9-12 event suggest otherwise.