In the wake of the Tea Party-inspired midterm victories, small government, economic conservatives are worried that the GOP will now return to it's habit of focusing on social issues and ignore the mandate from the voters to focus instead on reducing the federal government, lowering taxes, and generally getting the government out of our lives. To that end, the GOProud group, a gay conservative organization, penned an open letter to GOP congressional leadership urging them to stick to their charge and stay away from social issues.....From Politico -- "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.
I couldn't agree more. Insisting that "conservative" = dogmatic adherence to party-defined ideas of morality and personal behavior is a losing position for republicans. With the country heading toward the economic abyss and the government becoming intractably large, quixotically worrying about gay marriage, abortion, the war on drugs, Internet content, or whether women can own sex toys(all are associated with republican busy-bodies) is losing sight of their election-day mandate.
My advice to republicans in congress: do not take for granted the reliable and dutiful votes of Tea-Party conservatives. If you abdicate your responsibility to fulfill your campaign promises, the ire of the tea parties will be at you in two years, not Obama.
